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SHAWN SEIPLER IS on a mission to save lives with soap.
It began about seven years ago as a tiny operation with a few friends and family in a single car garage in Orlando, Florida, where they used meat grinders, potato peelers and cookers to recycle used soap into fresh bars.
The non-profit initiative, now called Clean the World, has since grown to include industrial recycling facilities in Las Vegas, Orlando and Hong Kong, cities where hotels are plentiful and used bars of soap can be gathered easily by the thousands.
As a frequent traveller while working for a tech company, Seipler had a thought one night at a Minneapolis hotel.
“I picked up the phone and called the front desk and asked them what happens to the bar of soap when I’m done using it,” he recalled. “They said they just threw it away.”
Seipler, now the group’s CEO, said that after some research he discovered that millions of used bars of soap from hotels worldwide are sent to landfills every day while many people in developing nations are dying from illnesses that could potentially be prevented if they only had access to simple hygiene products.
Thus began his mission to help save lives with soap and even half-used bottled amenities like shampoo.
“It’s a huge problem,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of preventative medicine and infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee.
One of the most common kinds of illnesses in the world are those that are transmitted from person to person and to oneself because of germs that are on one’s hands.
In the US and other developed nations, Schaffner noted, people take hygiene products for granted because they are everywhere — soap in public restrooms and even cleanser wipes at the entrances of grocery stores to sanitise shopping cart handles.
Not so in some other countries, where Schaffner recalled visiting a hospital once in the Middle East to find that soap was in such short supply that patients had to provide their own or go without.
“It’s such a fundamental part of the interruption of transmission of infectious agents that could save so many lives,” he said. “It’s not a magic wand, but it’s a very important element.”
Clean the World this week announced it was partnering with the similar Global Soap organisation to increase production, hygiene education and delivery.
The combined group now collects used soap from more than 4,000 hotels and says it has delivered some 25 million bars to 99 countries, including homeless shelters in the US.
The process is fairly simple with the collected soap being shredded then run through machines that remove any residual bacteria before being pressed into new bars of soap and packaged for delivery.
The group uses local aid and non-governmental organisations to help with distribution and ongoing education, along with sending their own teams into rural communities around the world to personally hand-deliver hygiene products and to teach residents about the importance of keeping clean.
“A lot of people are surprised to find out that one of the most effective ways to prevent many deaths is actually just hand-washing with soap,” said Global Soap’s director Sam Stephens. “We’re hoping to make a difference.”
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No one truly understands the heartbreak but the response of the community has been magnificent.
That special bond between this mother and daughter should be supported in every way possible.
It might help her if she decides to move away and make a new life with her baby, I can’t imagine how much it hurts to be in a place where they should be. Or help pay mortgage etc and not worry financially. No doubt she would give it back in a second to spend one more hour with them.
Ah she’s hardly going move anyway she still has lots family around , say that is very important
It’s heartwarming to see something positive coming from such an awful tragedy…..while nothing will take away their pain and grief hopefully it will at least give them one thing less to worry about for the moment
Money means nothing in a situation like this but fair play to all involved.
Of course not Shane but in the day’s and year’s ahead it will mean a lot. It would be nice for her to have no mortgage or rent to worry about, she’ll have enough to deal with. People want to help her and putting a few quid into an account for her is a way of doing it
It’s not about the money – it is a reflection on how many are/were willing to help you in your time of need. Collections were made by the local community for my own family tragedy and I often look back and cherish the memory that people were there to help. Fair play to all who donated. This story has affected people in all corners of the world- on the DM people from the UK and US were looking to donate also.
We cannot bring them back so this is just a way of sending support. Hard times ahead but hopefully this will help.
Love your surname Mary.
Ta Brian, it’s almost as good as your profile pic ;)
This is probably the worst tragedy I have ever heard of how is that women gonna cope with this when things settle down that’s the scary part
I know it’s too late for this poor family. I can’t stop thinking about them. Slipways at piers everywhere now should be gated off like in that photo so nothing like this can happen again. Very very sad and upsetting.
if ever a ‘go fund me’ was needed; this one is surely it
Glad to see people rallied around. The money won’t replace her family but it will cover their funerals and give her and her little girl some security for now. Such a terrible tragedy.
Woman
The headline says it could happen to anybody yet we don’t hear of people driving off slipways every day.
have your say