Pineapple Hospitality Donates 90,000 Bottled Amenities to Clean the World

Summary: Eco-friendly body washes, lotions and conditioners to be distributed domestically, bringing comfort and improved hygiene to children and families in homeless shelters, rescue centers and missions.

As Americans prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving Day, with all of its traditional abundance, one Missouri-based company is giving from its bounty to help Clean the World.

Pineapple Hospitality, the premier distributor of “green” hotel products and marketing programs to the hospitality industry, has donated more than 90,000 bottles of eco-friendly body washes, lotions and conditioners to improve comfort and dignity for children and families in distressed situations throughout the United States. The donations will be received by Clean theWorld, an Orlando, Fla.-based organization that recycles and distributes hygiene products to people in need.

The decision to donate the products comes right before Thanksgiving Day, but will have lasting impact for recipients of the Pineapple Hospitality products during and after the holiday season.

“We’re all aware of the economic and social distress so many families are experiencing in our own country and around the world,” says Ray Burger, CEO and president at Pineapple Hospitality. “Clean the World, with its impressive record of sustainability and social outreach, provides an ideal vehicle for our company to share our beauty and hygiene resources with those who need them most.”

Clean the World, a social enterprise committed to saving lives and protecting our planet, works with more than 1,200 hospitality partners in North America to collect and recycle hotel soaps, shampoos, conditioners, lotions and gels to help fight the global spread of preventable diseases.

“Through the generosity of partners such as Pineapple Hospitality, we are able to advance our mission to improve the hygiene and living conditions of children and families all over the globe,” says Shawn Seipler, CEO and co-founder at Clean the World. “Particularly in the United States, where we often take for granted our many gifts and privileges, we will be able to offer hygiene support and comfort that aligns with our goal to save lives with soap and bring dignity with simple gifts in troubling times."

In less than three years Clean the World has collected, recycled and distributed more than 9 million bars of soap and more than 600,000 lbs. of bottled amenities in the United States, Canada and more than 45 countries. This effort has helped divert more than 1.2 million lbs. of hotel waste from polluting local landfills.

Distribution Makes a World of Difference

You’ve often heard and read about Clean the World’s accomplishment of distributing more than 9 million bars of soap and more than 6.2 million bottled amenities in the United States, Canada and in more than 45 other countries.

But where do the soaps, shampoos, conditioners, lotions and gels ultimately go? You may be surprised to learn the answer.

Clean the World successfully works with more than 1,200 hotel partners to collect and recycle hotel soaps for distribution to children and families in need. What you may not know is that Clean the World also encourages and receives a substantial number of donations from schools, church groups, corporations, community organizations, and individuals with a shared goal of helping others stop the spread of preventable disease with soap.

And many of these items go to domestic homeless shelters, rescue missions, women’s shelters and children’s charities that have expressed a need and desire for hygiene items to comfort those in their care. [Note: If you know of an organization in need of hygiene supplies, please click here to request relief help from Clean the World.]

Since its founding in February 2009, Clean the World has distributed 1,042,917 lbs. of soap and 581,754 lbs. of shampoos, conditioners, lotions and gels to people in need.

In addition to soaps and standard hotel bottled amenities, Clean the World also shipped 48,000 bottles of hand sanitizing foams and gels to communities in Haiti to help stop the spread of disease.

More recently, Clean the World delivered 2,500 hygiene kits to communities in the Dominican Republic through an organization called FUNDHUBA, a D.R.-based non-profit that works in rural areas promoting hygiene issues. The kits, which contain soaps and bottled amenities, are wrapped in reusable PeopleTowels that were donated specifically for distribution to children and families overseas. Another 4,000 kits will be shipped to Haiti this week, with plans to send thousands more to Honduras and, possibly, Guatemala and Nicaragua in the near future.

Earlier this year, Clean the World formed a special partnership with Harvest Time International. Each week Harvest Time picks up a semi-truck of sanitized bottled amenities and re-distributes them to domestic homeless shelters and other non-profits across the Caribbean and Latin America.

Clean the World has also been involved in major worldwide relief efforts. More than 2 million bars of soap have been distributed in Haiti, most of it through a series of soap distribution trips following the Jan. 2010 earthquake and subsequent cholera outbreak. But Haiti is not the only beneficiary of such generosity on the part of our partners and supporters. Through a series of additional distribution partnerships, Clean the World delivered hygiene kits, soaps, bottled amenities and bottled water to victims of the tornadoes in Joplin, Mo., and earthquake and tsunami victims in Japan, Pakistan and the Philippines.

In the United States and Canada, Clean the World frequently donates soaps and hygiene-related items to The Salvation Army, Las Vegas Rescue Mission, New Missions, Fresh Start Ministries, Opportunity House, Bronx Neighborhood Cluster Program and many more deserving organizations that have requested hygiene items from Clean the World.

This Christmas season, as we did last year, we will work with our friends at Project Shoebox and many other church groups across the United States to deliver much needed hygiene products in shoeboxes for those hurting right here at home.

You can help, too. If you know of any organizations that can benefit from receiving soaps and bottled amenities from Clean the World, please visit our website and let us know. We are the leaders of a global hygiene revolution, but we will not overlook those who are struggling in our own backyard. Soap saves lives, and it all starts with passion and a willingness to help others. Thanks for helping Clean the World.

World Vision Loads First Truck with Soap from Soap Press

How’s this for an immediate return on investment?

The Clean the World soap press is already providing dividends in the form of soap to be delivered in communities overseas.

World Vision, one of Clean the World’s largest non-governmental organization (NGO) distribution partners, sent a truck to Clean the World headquarters in Orlando on Oct. 18, to pick up freshly recycled soap bars. And there was plenty to pick up when they arrived.

The truck was filled with 20 pallets of soaps – an estimated 103,680 bars of soap – that will soon find its way into the hands of children and families in need.

World Vision has field offices in countries all around the world. Soaps provided by Clean the World are distributed as part of hygiene kits in communities where soaps are in short supply, and often where regular hand washing with soap can mean the difference between life and death. Click here for a list of countries where Clean the World and World Vision have partnered to distribute soaps.

This first pickup of freshly pressed soaps from Clean the World represents the beginning of bi-monthly pickups for World Vision. Two truckloads of soap each month will be processed, packaged, picked up and placed in communities of greatest need.

And World Vision is not the only partner distributing soaps from Clean the World. A new partnership with Children International kicks off in late October with a similar arrangement. Two trucks each month will be filled with Clean the World soaps and included in Children International deliveries to Asia, with a specific emphasis on communities in Philippines.

Harvest Time International makes regular monthly pickups of bottled amenities for distribution to foreign countries and also to domestic homeless shelters and missions.

Clean the World works with a number of NGO partners to distribute soaps and bottled amenities, and we’re always looking for more. If you know of or work for an organization that would like to distribute hygiene items from Clean the World, please contact Rosanna Kingston (rkingston@cleantheworld.org) to work out the arrangements.

10,000 PeopleTowels to Help Clean the World

In an interesting twist on International Clean Hands Week, Clean the World welcomed a new partner to join the global hygiene revolution. PeopleTowels, makers of an on-the-go alternative to paper towels, partnered with Clean the World to help fight spread of preventable disease and rid the world of unnecessary landfill waste.

The Monterey, Calif.-based PeopleTowels organization donated more than 10,000 reusable PeopleTowels to Clean the World with plans to include them with donations of soaps and bottled amenities for children and families at home and abroad.

“PeopleTowels is thrilled to partner with Clean the World to advance basic hygiene in the most eco-friendly manner, making use of recycled soaps and cleanser and sustainably produced, reusable hand towels that prevent solid waste and conserve resources,” says Linda Lannon, CEO of PeopleTowels. “Working together, Clean the World and PeopleTowels will provide thousands of people in need with the ability to reduce the spread of infectious disease through the simple act of hand washing. Advancing global health is as much a part of building a more sustainable world as how green the products we use and consume and conserving natural resources are, making this collaboration with Clean the World a natural advancement of our mutual goals.”

Plans are to wrap the soaps and bottled amenities in PeopleTowels and create sustainable hygiene kits for children and communities in the United States, Canada and all around the globe. Volunteers at Clean the World will help create the eco-friendly satchels and they will be distributed by Clean the World personnel and global distribution partners wherever there is a need for improved health and hygiene.

“This is a logical partnership that extends our efforts to advance sustainability and promote better opportunities for improved hygiene health,” says Shawn Seipler, co-founder of Clean the World. “PeopleTowels came to our attention at the recommendation of another valued partner, The American Cleaning Institute, and we’re encouraged of the good we can do in delivering the tools of better hygiene in a convenient, portable and reusable way.”

Clean the World and PeopleTowels will mark the start of their partnership with a “big event” on Oct. 15 – Global Handwashing Day. Further details will be available soon.

Sheraton Safari: Clean the World's 100th Starwood Partner

The next time you go on safari you will be helping Clean the World.

More accurately, the next time you stay at Sheraton Safari Hotel near Walt Disney World, your soaps and bottled amenities will be recycled by Clean the World.

In September, Sheraton Safari Hotel became the 100th Starwood Hotel and Resort property to partner with Clean the World Hospitality Partnership Program. Sheraton Safari Hotel, which sits at the edge of Walt Disney World property in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., is undergoing an extensive renovation, but that did not slow the growing enthusiasm among the property team for joining the soap recycling program.

“The entire staff is really excited,” says Randy Guidicelli, executive housekeeper at Sheraton Safari Hotel. “Our general manager, Mark Politte and our management company, Aimbridge Hospitality, are both very supportive of the Clean the World program.”

Starwood Hotels and Resorts announced a corporate partnership with Clean the World on April 22nd – Earth Day. The announcement gave corporate approval to the efforts of individual Starwood properties that had already been involved with the Clean the World amenities recycling program.

“We’ve been looking into joining the Clean the World program throughout the year and felt it is very valuable and something to which we could easily contribute,” Guidicelli says. “It’s been amazing to learn how many people receive recycled soap around the world from all of our properties.”

Sheraton Safari Hotel was recently notified in early September by the Starwood corporate office that the property was the 100th to join Clean the World.

“We received a call from Starwood Corporate and they congratulated our housekeeping team for joining the Clean the World program,” he says. “In only a few weeks, our property is filling the Clean the World recycling bins quickly. We expect to be a large contributor of soaps and bottled amenities to Clean the World, and our staff is motivated to make this a success.”

The staff at Sheraton Safari Hotel celebrated International Housekeepers Week with daily events of appreciation to honor the tremendous efforts of the housekeeping team. Each department at Sheraton Safari Hotel participated in the celebration, offering an ice cream social, pizza party, luncheon and a potluck celebration to end the week.

A Ton of Soap to Help Clean the World

The global hygiene revolution has taken root in the hospitality industry, not only among hotels, but among hospitality vendors as well.

Sysco Guest Supply, one of the nation’s largest providers of soaps and bottled amenities to the hotel industry, recently made a generous donation to Clean the World.

The New-Jersey based company shipped more than three pallets of soaps to Clean the World in July. The pallets contained barrels filled with 2,119 lbs. of soap or the equivalent of 11,330 soap bars. Many of the soaps will be included as part of an upcoming Clean the World soap distribution trip to Haiti, with others designated for domestic distribution to homeless shelters, women’s shelters and missions.

“We’re enormously grateful for the generosity shown by Sysco Guest Supply,” says Shawn Seipler, CEO and co-founder of Clean the World. “The soaps will soon be in the hands of children and families in desperate need of hygiene supplies. We’re thankful for the opportunity to include these soaps in our ongoing effort to stop the spread of preventable diseases.”

Marietta Corporation Partners with Clean the World

Summary: Hotel soaps and bottled amenities will be collected, recycled and distributed to children and families to help stop the spread of preventable diseases in the United States, Canada and more than 40 countries.


Marietta Corporation, a leading hotel amenities provider to the hospitality industry worldwide, has partnered with Clean the World Global LLC to help recycle hotel soaps and bottled amenities and stop the spread of preventable diseases worldwide.

The partnership broadens Marietta’s corporate social responsibility initiatives among its extensive list of hotel partners in North America and extends its eco-friendly portfolio of amenity services, which already include “green” product offerings, such as Aveda, Naturals, PAYA Organics, ProTerra, Sonoma Soap Company, Earth’s Accents, Dispensers and Eco Gallons.

Orlando, Fla.-based Clean the World, a social enterprise committed to saving lives and protecting our planet, is the largest global recycler of hotel amenities and offers sustainable, socially responsible, and charitable programs and services to the international hospitality community.

Each day, 9,000 children around the world die from diseases such as acute respiratory infection and diarrheal diseases that can be prevented by washing with soap. Clean the World Foundation Inc., the 501 (c) (3) charitable arm of Clean the World Global LLC, has a mission to provide soap where needed to help improve hygiene and sanitation conditions, to lessen the impact of disease, and to promote better hygiene and living conditions worldwide.

“Marietta Corporation strives to align itself with companies whose vision and values are similar to our own,” says Donald W. Sturdivant, chief executive officer of Marietta Corporation. “Clean the World has proven itself to be a force within the hospitality industry for soap and guest room amenities recycling, and its hospitality program is rapidly becoming the industry standard for sustainability efforts throughout North America. We are extremely proud to be contributing toward the vital work which Clean the World is undertaking. The knowledge that providing soap to struggling parts of the world not only adds to people’s quality of life, but actually saves lives, is utterly gratifying. ”

Clean the World has partnered with more than 1,050 hotel properties in North America to provide soaps and bottled amenities to people in need. In just two years of operation, through the efforts of the Clean the World Foundation, the organization has distributed more than 8 million bars of soap to children and families in the United States and more than 40 countries worldwide, including Haiti, Japan, Zimbabwe, Uganda, India, Honduras, Mexico and Albania. While doing so, the organization has also fulfilled a valuable environmental mission by diverting an estimated 1.1 million lbs. (550 tons) of hotel waste from polluting landfills in the United States and Canada.

“This partnership with Marietta Corporation signifies something remarkable about how the hospitality industry is responding to soap recycling and sustainability initiatives,” says Shawn Seipler, co-founder and chief executive officer at Clean the World. “Having such a well-known, well-respected amenities partner in this industry really validates what we are hoping to accomplish at Clean the World – to save lives by recycling soap. The reward will come in the number of children and families who will avoid death and disease as a result of this partnership, and we’re grateful to all of our hospitality partners who are interested in promoting better health, improved hygiene and a cleaner world.”

Harvest Time distributes bottled amenities for Clean the World

Central Florida is proving to be quite a generous location for Clean the World and a growing list of non-profit organizations and philanthropic partners.

Harvest Time International, which is based in Sanford, Fla., has stepped up to help Clean the World distribute bottled amenities to people in need as part of its organizational mission of “caring by sharing.”

Volunteers from Harvest Time came to Clean the World in mid-May and filled a truckload full of bottle amenities. They will distribute the shampoos, conditioners, lotions and gels to organizations who are asking for hygiene supplies throughout its vast network of missions.

Harvest Time International distributes hunger and relief products to families in need in the United States and developing countries, and responds to disasters worldwide.

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