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LIFE&FAMILY
112
February15
Vote For Soap – the stats
• On average, each guest at Hilton Singapore or the
Conrad Centennial Singapore uses less than half
a bar of soap.
• Thousands of underprivileged families in Asia
cannot afford to buy soap.
• 600,000 children die before their fifth birthday from
infections like diarrhoea and pneumonia.
• As of September 2014, 16 Hilton Hotels in the
Asia Pacific have participated in the programme,
collecting more than seven tonnes of soap, which
have been recycled into 175,000 new bars of soap.
• Globally, more than 700 hotels have donated more
than 260 tonnes of soap, which have been recycled
into one million bars of new soap.
which focus on solving problems, implementing solutions and
making the world a better place.
Iris Fagniez and Marla Rinck were in the group of 12
students, guided by teacher Mike Johnston, 15-year-old Ben
Best signed up when he joined the school a little later. “It never
occurred to me that you could recycle soap, or that something
so small could make such a big difference in the world,” said
Ben, while recounting the journey from problem to solution.
“Our mission was to save lives and help the environment.
But at first we had no idea. We had some soap and we knew
where the people were that needed it, but we had no idea
how to bridge the gap. We decided to shave off the outside
of the bars and form the inside into new bars of soap. It was
a disaster. Shaving the bars took ages, and all we were left
with was a mess,” Ben explained.
The students realised that they needed a partner. After
doing some research and talking to HH, they found Hong
Kong-based non-government organisation Soap Cycling (SC),
the first non-profit soap-recycling company in Asia. Established
in 2012, SC does exactly what the students needed: recycles
used soap bars into larger bars for distribution to needy
communities.
But the catch was that they had to get the soap bars to
Hong Kong. The students were keen to minimise their carbon
footprint to meet their environmental goals. This was top of
their minds as they searched for a transport partner. DHL
Global Forwarding quickly said yes to the students’ proposal
to collect the soap fromHH and ship it fromSingapore to Hong
Kong. Raymond Leong from DHL said the project is aligned
with the company’s corporate responsibility activities. “So far
we’ve moved two consignments of 400 kilograms by ocean,
not air, with a sailing time of four days,” he said.
Once the soap is delivered to the SC warehouse it is sorted
by colour and scent. Any debris on the top layer is removed
by hand. The remaining product is then moistened and put
Representatives from Hilton Worldwide,
UWCSEA, DHL and Soap Cycling holding
bars of recycled soap
through machines that turn it into long bars of soap. These
are dried for up to 48 hours and cut into family-sized 340-
gram bars. The processed soap is then packaged, shipped
and delivered to the needy by NGO partners in countless
communities in over 10 countries including Cambodia, the
Philippines, Indonesia and China.
“Each partner brought very different expertise to the table,
driven by a common vision to impact positively on vulnerable
communities and reduce environmental impact,” said Hilton
Regional General Manager, Peter Webster.
Ben Best summed up his satisfaction with the results from
the programme: “The resilience shown by UWCSEA students
was admirable, because it’s easy to give up. But if you feel
passionate, you’ll find a motivation to keep going. We learnt
valuable lessons: to pitch ideas to global companies and to
collaborate with adults and peers. Above all, I learned that
age doesn’t matter. And this is how I’ve proved it to myself.”