--- title: This Is What Happens to Unfinished Hotel Soap description: Clean the World is an Orlando-based company that recycles unfinished hotel soap to make new soap. canonical: https://time.com/4765166/hotel-soap-recycle/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-11T19:08:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:57:51.664Z og:title: This Is What Happens to Half-used Hotel Room Soap og:description: It's safe to say that complimentary bar of soap won't get used up og:url: https://time.com/4765166/hotel-soap-recycle/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2b5e5b7a1dbdb0ee/6988cbcebc6cfc8ab33e130e/hotel-soap-recycle.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3680 og:image:height: 2070 og:image:alt: Hotel cosmetics in the bathroom og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Is What Happens to Half-used Hotel Room Soap twitter:description: It's safe to say that complimentary bar of soap won't get used up twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2b5e5b7a1dbdb0ee/6988cbcebc6cfc8ab33e130e/hotel-soap-recycle.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Is What Happens to Unfinished Hotel Soap > Sponsored content. 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It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. by [Erika Owen / Travel + Leisure](https://time.com/author/travel-leisure/) ## Erika Owen / Travel + Leisure May 11, 2017 7:08 PM UTC  Close up view on the bottles with cosmetics in the hotel bathroom Close up view on the bottles with cosmetics in the hotel bathroom Getty Images by [Erika Owen / Travel + Leisure](https://time.com/author/travel-leisure/) ## Erika Owen / Travel + Leisure May 11, 2017 7:08 PM UTC Unless you plan on holding up in a [hotel room](http://www.travelandleisure.com/worlds-best/hotels-top-100-overall) for an extended period of time, it’s safe to say that complimentary [bar of soap](http://www.travelandleisure.com/hotels-resorts/secret-hotel-amenities) won’t get used up. But where does that soap go after the hotel guests are gone? At least some of it goes to Clean the World, an Orlando-based company that recycles the soap to make new soap. The soap they use never reaches the landfill, helping the local environment and all of the new soap is distributed to areas of need. Hotels actually pay Clean the World to take their unused soap — $.50 per room, per month, [according to _Thrillist_](https://www.thrillist.com/travel/nation/hotel-bar-soap-clean-the-world-orlando-charity)_._ They also partner with cosmetic companies like Unilever to receive their rejected soap bars. Once the old soap arrives in one of Clean the World’s warehouses (which you can find in India, [Las Vegas](http://travelandleisure.com/travel-guide/las-vegas), Hong Kong, Orlando, and Montreal), the soap is melted down and reformed into new bars. These new soaps are packaged and sent off to charities (think: Red Cross) and other NGOs around the world. The work Clean the World is doing is impressive: In 2016, they made more than 7 million soaps and 400,000 hygiene kits. Of these bars of soap, 500,000 went to help those affected by Hurricane Matthew in Haiti and the Bahamas. The company also works with half-used shampoo, body wash, and conditioner bottles. These items are closely inspected (bottles must be 3/4 full), emptier bottles are recycled, and then they are included in the aforementioned hygiene kits — which also include toothbrushes, toothpaste, and hand sanitizer — before being distributed to homeless shelters all over the globe. _This_ [_article_](http://www.travelandleisure.com/hotels-resorts/hotel-room-soap) _originally appeared on_ [_TravelandLeisure.com_](http://www.travelandleisure.com) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4765166/hotel-soap-recycle/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4765166/hotel-soap-recycle/"},"headline":"This Is What Happens to Unfinished Hotel Soap","datePublished":"2017-05-11T19:08:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:57:51.664Z","description":"Clean the World is an Orlando-based company that recycles unfinished hotel soap to make new soap.","url":"https://time.com/4765166/hotel-soap-recycle/","keywords":["Living","Travel","onetime","Evergreen"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2b5e5b7a1dbdb0ee/6988cbcebc6cfc8ab33e130e/hotel-soap-recycle.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Erika Owen / Travel + Leisure"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2b5e5b7a1dbdb0ee/6988cbcebc6cfc8ab33e130e/hotel-soap-recycle.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Hotel cosmetics in the bathroom","caption":"Hotel cosmetics in the bathroom","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4765166/hotel-soap-recycle/","name":"This Is What Happens to Unfinished Hotel Soap"}}]}] ```