Althouse: Reusing the soap.

March 19, 2019

Reusing the soap.

At Facebook this morning:

John (quoting from "Hilton is recycling used bars of hotel soap to save the planet" (CNN)): "Hilton Hotels ... announced Monday that it will collect used bars of soap from guest rooms across its hotels and recycle them into 1 million new bars of soap by October 15, which is Global Handwashing Day."

Me: Gross! "Crushed, sanitized and cut into new soap bars." So the pubic hairs and whatnot are in there, but it's okay, they're sanitized.

John (quoting from "Friends"): "Soap is soap. It's self-cleaning."

Me: Those 2 are great. Perfection!!

Me (again): The article — with that "save the planet" puffing — seems like CNN just published Hilton's PR statement.

John: Good, we should be glad when doing good for the environment aligns with business interests, e.g. getting a good press release out of it. It's worse when the opposite is true, when businesses don't see a benefit from voluntarily having good environmental practices, making it more likely that government will step in to micromanage them.

Me: Is it good for the environment or is it environmentalism theater? Did CNN check?

70 comments:

Kevin said...: Yet another step closer to Soylent Green.; 3/19/19, 9:35 AM
Henry said...: I trust Hilton to do this more than Paris Hilton.; 3/19/19, 9:36 AM
Larry J said...: I've read that some hotels have been recycling leftover soap for a long time. They collect it from the rooms and process it into new bars to give to homeless shelters and related charities. Perhaps there's a way to filter out undesirable things like hair from the used soap. Perhaps the homeless don't care.

More often, I'm seeing hotels install liquid soap and shampoo dispensers because it's cheaper than dealing with those little bar of soap.; 3/19/19, 9:37 AM
Big Mike said...: Funny. I had assumed that they did this for decades already.; 3/19/19, 9:38 AM
rhhardin said...: You could do the same thing with lampshades.; 3/19/19, 9:45 AM
tcrosse said...: Here in Las Vegas the better hotels recycle the water.; 3/19/19, 9:48 AM
Dave Begley said...: It is not saving the planet. It is about saving money. Same deal with not replacing the towels every day.

Short Sysco. It owns Guest Supply.; 3/19/19, 9:48 AM
John henry said...: So what's new?

They've been doing this for 100 years.

You didn't think hotels just threw that soap away, did you? They collect it and sell it.

But it sounds so much tonier and virtuous to call it recycling instead of rendering.

John Henry; 3/19/19, 9:49 AM
exhelodrvr1 said...: Have they verified that the recycling process is not actually worse for the environment than just making brand new soap? Often, recycling takes more out than it returns.; 3/19/19, 9:50 AM
Birches said...: Soap is not self cleaning. Fully agree with Joey on this.; 3/19/19, 9:51 AM
Tommy Duncan said...: Recycling soap has a high "ick" factor.

Also, soap is quite biodegradable. The landfill benefit is minimal. In fact, using "grey water" to water lawns and gardens is common.; 3/19/19, 9:52 AM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: This reminds me of a study a few years ago where they applied various virus and germs on bars of soap and proved that, as long as the person properly lathers and rinses, it doesn't matter what dirt, germs and critters were on the soap, because they slough off by the surfactant action of the soap. Soap polymers are pretty interesting and actually solved a problem NASA had with the original rocket squibs they used. I worked at a company called Richmond Technology, which developed anti-static plastic for NASA after a horrific accident caused by removing the original sheeting they used to cover the squibs. The secret sauce was adding a small amount of soap to the plastic before extruding it.

Anyway, you can rinse ANYTHING off a soap bar and it will leave the soap behind clean.; 3/19/19, 9:52 AM
John henry said...: Link from 2013

https://www.usatoday.com/story/hotelcheckin/2013/04/05/more-hotels-recycle-left-behind-toiletries-bars-of-soap-shampoo-bottles/2053715/

John Henry; 3/19/19, 9:53 AM
Christy said...: I guess liquid soap dispensers are too much a station bathroom vibe? I'm not sure it's a positive PR move except in the abstract. Ooh, what a great idea! Except I think I'll pack my own body wash. Oops, it's over the allowed carry-on. Oh, well, another hotel it is.

Falls into the "okay for the masses but not for me" realm.

Aren't there two kinds of travlers? The kind who leave home with travel sized soaps and the kind who arrive back home with hotel sized soaps?; 3/19/19, 9:54 AM
cubanbob said...: If I have to stay in a Hilton, I'll be sure to bring my own bar of soap.; 3/19/19, 9:55 AM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: Gross! "Crushed, sanitized and cut into new soap bars." So the pubic hairs and whatnot are in there, but it's okay, they're sanitized.

I hear Tyler Durden is offering a deal on brand new, artisanal soap.; 3/19/19, 9:57 AM
reader said...: I would prefer that they not provide soap at all rather than recycle it. Wouldn't that be even better for the environment? Maybe not for their shareholders though?

I travel with my own for the shower but use the hotel's soap for my hands. I hope that the new and not so improved soap will be clearly marked.

In my opinion the funniest Friends episodes are "The One With All the Thanksgivings" and "The One Where Everybody Finds Out".; 3/19/19, 10:03 AM
blnelson2 said...: Eeeeuuuuwwww.; 3/19/19, 10:05 AM
traditionalguy said...: Another chapter of the Hotel bathroom placards from the 1990s that say, " do not ask us to wash your towels every day, just reuse them please." Saving the earth by saving Mariott money presented as a twofer.; 3/19/19, 10:06 AM
Jim Gust said...: Uh-oh. All these years I've been bringing home the used bars of soap and mini-bottles of shampoo from my hotel stays. Waste not, want not, I was taught. Now it turns out I'm depriving them of resources.; 3/19/19, 10:08 AM
Unknown said...: Brown New Deal.; 3/19/19, 10:08 AM
Achilles said...: I believe the short bald guy on Seinfeld was first to assert soap was self cleaning.; 3/19/19, 10:14 AM
Bay Area Guy said...: So the pubic hairs and whatnot are in there, but it's okay, they're sanitized.

"Who put the pubic hair in my Ivory Soap?"
- Anita Hilton; 3/19/19, 10:15 AM
tcrosse said...: There is an organization which devotes itself to recycling crayons: The Crayon Initiative; 3/19/19, 10:16 AM
Danno said...: Blogger rhhardin said...You could do the same thing with lampshades.

Excepting of course the Ed Gein variety that was common in Wisconsin.; 3/19/19, 10:18 AM
J. Farmer said...: I'm not much of a fan of hotel toiletries. I find the body soaps and washes tend to be too harsh and drying, even in the high end places. I always either bring my own toiletries or buy the small travel varieties from the local drug store at wherever I am staying.; 3/19/19, 10:19 AM
Butkus51 said...: Never got into this show. Sophomoric humor deluxe.; 3/19/19, 10:20 AM
Nonapod said...: Technically bacteria can leave on a bar of soap provided it doesn't dry out, but if you wash off the bar before you use it it's unlikely that anything will survive.; 3/19/19, 10:22 AM
Mattman26 said...: Glad to hear the planet is saved. That's a load off.; 3/19/19, 10:23 AM
narayanan said...: Whenever I stay in places like this -
I bring home my "quota of cleaning supplier" when I check out.; 3/19/19, 10:25 AM
Seeing Red said...: This is interesting because after a trip I thought it was such a waste throwing away a mostly unused bar. Even at home.

That’s why there used to be a soap jar, to collect slivers and melt and reuse them. Nothing went to waste. I’m assuming Hilton will save money.

We eat rat hairs in chocolate.

As to gross, Ann, just bring your own. Win-win! You won’t be the first. I always carry a packaged hotel soap with me traveling and I was also thinking of bringing a baggie to be
Ring the used soaps home.

I am in no way a recycler. My only real contribution was returning hangers to my dry cleaner. The other stuff I do was forced. All cans go into the garbage, not the recycle bin.

And it seems I was right after all these years. I hated plastic bags, always chose brown if it was an option.; 3/19/19, 10:30 AM
JRoberts said...: I understand the desire for the hospitality industry to be good stewards of the environment - there's a lot be gained from a cost and PR standpoint. Imagine how many bars of soap and gallons of water a 5,000+ room hotel like the MGM Grand in Las Vegas uses each day.

However, as I travel I'm frustrated by bathroom sinks that can't be filled for shaving or toilets that don't flush properly or showers that take longer due to all the pressure reducing water saving devices. It often seems to defeat the intended purpose.; 3/19/19, 10:48 AM
traditionalguy said...: Mike @ 9:52 is focusing on the best method. for removing bacteria for a sterile environment such as an operating Room. That REQUIRES washing of hands with soap and warm water for 5 minutes. That method is 95% effective. While the other wash methods such as using alcohol or betadyne are only 40% effective. You must wash germs off physically rather than try to kill them chemically.

Ergo: reusing hotel towels is zero % effective.; 3/19/19, 10:48 AM
Freeman Hunt said...: I'm glad I usually stay at Hyatts.; 3/19/19, 10:56 AM
mikee said...: I, for one, recognize that there is value to recycling (rather than merely a virtue signal) ONLY when I get paid for the material being recycled. Otherwise, the stuff carefully sorted into bins probably all goes in one truck to one landfill.; 3/19/19, 11:02 AM
Wilbur said...: I find it pretty interesting, if not perplexing, that people bring their own soap with them when they travel, knowing that fresh unopened soap or shampoo is provided in every hotel/motel bath.; 3/19/19, 11:04 AM
Rick said...: John: Good, we should be glad when doing good for the environment aligns with business interests, e.g. getting a good press release out of it. It's worse when the opposite is true, when businesses don't see a benefit from voluntarily having good environmental practices, making it more likely that government will step in to micromanage them.

Me: Is it good for the environment or is it environmentalism theater?

It's revealing customer interests don't appear in the evaluation.

I'll stick with the places moving to liquid soap thanks.; 3/19/19, 11:06 AM
Amexpat said...: Most environmental solution is for hotels to use dispensers for soap, shampoo, conditioners, etc. I've seen them in upscale hotels with quality products. No waste and easy to refill.; 3/19/19, 11:18 AM
rehajm said...: Those 2 are great. Perfection!!

On Friends gum is perfection.; 3/19/19, 11:19 AM
Marty said...: Sigh. More virtue signaling from corporate America--paving the way for surrender to Bernie? Don't you love the hectoring "save water" signs in even cheap motel bathrooms, using ecosermons to cover up the money-saving? It's a bit like the way consumers have let ourselves be talked into buying T-shirts with corporate logos, where we pay to advertise the product, rather than the other way around.

Ah, America, where all things are still possible.; 3/19/19, 11:20 AM
Henry said...: I squeamishness understandable, but also odd. Everything we eat and breath is full of the dust of excrement and organic death.; 3/19/19, 11:24 AM
tim maguire said...: People are gross. If I am using some stranger's bar of soap, I want to know about it so I can stay at some other hotel.

As with most recycling programs, I highly doubt that the energy and materials saved by recycling is greater than the energy and materials used in recycling. Unless they just keep re-wrapping the old bar until the hotel name wears off.

Which is what I'll assume they are doing.; 3/19/19, 11:24 AM
Charlie Currie said...: Saving the planet is bullshit. Saving money, doubtful. It's like buying something on sale and talking about how much money you saved...no, you spent money. Saving money would be not buying what ever it is. Recycling is proving to be more expensive that dumping it in a landfill.

Whenever someone talks about saving the planet, I think, the planet doesn't need saving, it will save its self by exterminating all of us. What they're really talking about is trying to save humanity, but that just sounds stupid while at the same time blaming humans for all the planet's supposed ills.; 3/19/19, 11:38 AM
exhelodrvr1 said...: So, do we now have 12 years and 1 week until Doomsday?; 3/19/19, 11:43 AM
Jaq said...: You could have used Ross taking home stuff from hotel rooms. "It's included in the price!"; 3/19/19, 11:44 AM
Kevin said...: Have they verified that the recycling process is not actually worse for the environment than just making brand new soap? Often, recycling takes more out than it returns.

The savings come in when people stop using hotel soap because they heard it's been recycled.

And now you know the rest of the story...; 3/19/19, 11:59 AM
Charlie Eklund said...: Oddly, I’ve always taken along my own soap and toilet paper when travelling. When we leave the room for the day, our soap goes into zip locs and both soap and TP go into one of our bags. Better soap and better TP makes for a better trip!; 3/19/19, 12:37 PM
Michael said...: This has been done for decades. The little bars that graced the bathrooms of Holiday Inns were always recycled, melted down and reformed into more tiny bars. Live with the news.; 3/19/19, 1:06 PM
Ralph L said...: The only way this makes financial sense would be to toss the old bars in the virgin soap vats before it's barred. It gives the empty trucks something to haul back to the distribution centers and factory (presumably a contractor that makes multiple soap brands). The question then is how far do they have to ship it.

I started using some of my step-monster's filched Marriott soap collection at the Y, and seborrhea broke out under my beard. I forgot it probably has moisturizer, which my delicate skin can't handle.; 3/19/19, 1:16 PM
Levi Starks said...: The virtual resources required to to make sure the virtue signaling alone reaches the widest possible audience will likely result in the expenditure of more resources than will be saved.
Not even counting the actual resources required to create new stream by which the used soap makes it back to the recycler.; 3/19/19, 1:20 PM
Jim at said...: Excellent.
Now do toilet paper.; 3/19/19, 1:23 PM
Ben Lange said...: How could you leave out LeBlanc’s retort: “Think about the last thing I wash and the first thing you wash.”; 3/19/19, 1:26 PM
RK said...: If they really wanted to save the planet, they'd be using rickshaws for airport-hotel transportation. I also have some suggestions for the airlines.; 3/19/19, 1:49 PM
reader said...: Pondering the cleanliness of soap...my mom always used a new bar when she washed my mouth out with soap.; 3/19/19, 1:57 PM
Jessica said...: The absurdity of Hilton -- a company built on people traveling by car, bus, and mostly AIRPLANE, to stay in its accommodation -- doing this environmentalist theater is rich. "Please, fly for hours, spewing carbon all the while, and then wash yourself with used soap and sip out of a paper straw!"

Environmentalism Theater indeed.; 3/19/19, 2:01 PM
Jaq said...: If you ever smelled the raw material for soap, in restaurant grease pits...; 3/19/19, 2:03 PM
Ann Althouse said...: @Robert Lange

It is in the video clip.; 3/19/19, 2:05 PM
n.n said...: Perhaps if properly sanitized.

11 Things In Your Bathroom to Throw Away Now

Bar soap... If it’s sitting in water, it can become a breeding ground for microorganisms.
11 Things In Your Bathroom to Throw Away Now, health.com

On the other hand, reusing liquid soap is a viable choice.; 3/19/19, 2:16 PM
tcrosse said...: Pondering the cleanliness of soap...my mom always used a new bar when she washed my mouth out with soap.

My Mother used Fels Naphtha, but it didn't fucking work.; 3/19/19, 2:33 PM
Jeff Brokaw said...: Until proven otherwise, all such stunts are environmental theatre.

If this was a stock and “helping the environment” was the factor that made the stock price go up, short that sucker all day long.; 3/19/19, 2:34 PM
tcrosse said...: Every time a hotel guest uses a recycled bar of soap, the Chinese close another coal-fired power plant.; 3/19/19, 2:43 PM
Bob Boyd said...: Finding a pubic hair on a bar of soap is good luck. Recycled soap, doubly so.; 3/19/19, 2:46 PM
FleetUSA said...: It would be better for the planet if they gave the used bars to homeless shelters.; 3/19/19, 2:53 PM
Rick.T. said...: Marriott tried to seduce me to go green for an extra 500 points a night. Did it for a couple weeks but they never posted them to my account...so screw 'em. I do use only one bar a soap for the week, though, mostly to wash my glasses in the morning.

PS - hair on my soap is about third place I'd worry about being on it.; 3/19/19, 3:03 PM
wildswan said...: I will not be using Hilton ever again; and I'll carry and use my own soap in case the others try the same thing without mentioning it.; 3/19/19, 3:25 PM
John henry said...: Seems like the fact that this was going on long before anyone had even heard of recycling would be evidence of its economic viability.

Seems like the fact that companies pay Hilton et al for the used soap would be proof that it is a valuable resource, not a waste.

In the 50s we used to raise money for our cc ub scout troop by collecting and selling old newspaper.

If someone pays you for it, it's a resource. If you have to pay someone to take it away, it's a waste.

People used to make a living collecting and selling dogshit on the streets of London. en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/pure_finder

Dogshit was a valued resource. Nobody collected it to signal virtue.

John Henry; 3/19/19, 4:49 PM
John henry said...: I always carry my own soap because I like a big bar.

Everybody here seems to assume that hotel soap is recycled to more hotel bar soap.

It's not. It is recycled to all kinds of soap. How much recycled soap do you think is in your Prell, irish spring, safeguard, head and shoulders etc.?

Or even high end artisanal soap.

If recycled soap bothers you, stop bathing.

John Henry; 3/19/19, 4:55 PM
ken in tx said...: When I was in South Korea, hotel guests were expected to bring their own wash cloths. It was considered too personal an item for a hotel to provide. They did however, provide funny smelling soap, and tooth brushes.; 3/19/19, 4:56 PM
Jeff said...: This is going to be another instance of "Get woke, go broke!"

Hilton will lose many more customers than they gain by this. No doubt they did surveys that say this is not so, but people have virtue-signaling reasons to lie about this kind of thing.; 3/19/19, 6:41 PM
JAORE said...: I will NOT be showing this to my wife. We already carry too many items with us on trips.; 3/20/19, 7:27 AM