Hilton Expands Soap Recycling Initiative to Singapore

Hilton Worldwide, in partnership with Soap Cycling, DHL Global Forwarding, and United World College South East Asia (UWCSEA), has launched a joint soap recycling initiative in Singapore.

On average, less than half a soap bar gets used by guests at the Hilton Singapore. In the meantime, thousands of underprivileged families in Asia – especially in South Asia – cannot afford to buy soap. Furthermore, almost 600,000 children in South Asia die before their fifth birthday, because of infections like diarrhea and pneumonia.

To ensure that vulnerable communities in Asia have access to soap – and to reduce unnecessary waste – Hilton Worldwide collaborated with Soap Cycling, Asia’s first soap recycling NGO; DHL Global Forwarding, leading provider of air, sea and road freight services in Europe and Asia; and a group of passionate students at the United World College to recycle its bars of soap.

Hilton Singapore and Conrad Centennial Singapore collect used bars of soap from guest rooms, they are then picked up by DHL Global Forwarding, who transports them to Soap Cycling’s processing warehouse in Hong Kong. There, the soap is processed into new bars of soap. These are then transported by NGOs to vulnerable communities in the Philippines, Cambodia, Thailand, and other countries across Asia.

As of September 2014, there are 16 Hilton Worldwide properties across Asia Pacific involved in soap recycling. Together they have collected more than 7,000 kg of used soap as of September 2014, and – with the support of committed, like-minded partners – created more than 175,000 new soap bars, which are delivered to vulnerable communities in the Philippines, Cambodia, Thailand, and other countries across Asia.