KUCHING: Hilton Hotel Kuching has launched a soap recycling project called ‘Solution for Life’ in collaboration with Ecolab and Hope Place.
Hilton Kuching general manager Hamish Watts said, this social initiative was aimed at supporting hygiene in the community in conjunction with Hilton’s 100th anniversary celebration.
“By the end of this month, all Hilton hotels in Malaysia will have a soap-recycling project in place providing much needed sanitation for the underprivileged and enabling members of this community to support themselves,” he said at the project launch at Hilton Kuching, yesterday.
He noted that while the less fortunate have limited access to hygiene products such as soaps, half-used hotel soaps are often tossed away as waste products.
Watts revealed that 50 kilogrammes of waste soaps could be generated at Hilton Kuching in just two months. Prior to this project, these waste soaps were processed in Hong Kong and then donated to charity.
Vice president and managing director of Ecolab Singapore and Malaysia Ong Kian Tick explained that Ecolab contributed technical expertise to the programme with regards to processing of the soap wastes.
“We have the platform to help those in need, so this collaboration came at a perfect time for us to do this while also empowering them,” remarked Hope Place president Chong Hai Eng.
She highlighted that the core activity of her non-governmental organisation was helping the less fortunate by providing basic necessities.
Chong believed that ‘Solution for Life’ was one of the ways that Hope Place could help the underprivileged community achieve economic empowerment while enabling them to support themselves.
Hope Place founder Kelvin Wan said the soaps were processed by their trained staff, but members of the public could also volunteer.
He added that currently, Hilton Kuching was supplying them with the used soaps on a monthly basis.
“The reprocessed soaps are donated to the less fortunate and they are also sold at Hope Place’s second-hand shop at TT3 Plaza in Tabuan Tranquility,” Wan stated.
He added that the next phase would be training the underprivileged families to process the soaps.
Minister of Local Government and Housing Datuk Dr Sim Kui Hian was represented by Assistant Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Datuk Sebastian Ting in officiating at the event.
Dr Sim, in his text of speech read by Ting, commended ‘Solution for Life’ for promoting sustainable lifestyles and encouraged efforts to reduce one’s environmental footprint.
“I sincerely hope that more hotels will follow suit and support this caring and meaningful initiative,” said Dr Sim.
During the launching of ‘Solution for Life’, the different stages of soap processing were also demonstrated – sanitisation, grating, cooking or melting and moulding – after which the new soaps were ready to be used.
Soap recycling is part of Hilton’s Travel with Purpose 2030 goal towards doubling investment in social impact and cutting its environmental footprint through responsible hospitality.
