Clean the World

Clean the World was founded in 2009 by Shawn Seipler. As the Vice President of Sales and Marketing for an e-commerce technology company, Shawn traveled several days a week. The idea for soap recycling came about after Shawn learned the barely used bars of hotel soap he left behind each morning ended up in a landfill. That led to Clean the World, a Florida not-for-profit corporation under 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

Clean the World has a two-part mission:

• Collect and recycle soap and hygiene products discarded every day by the hospitality industry and other sectors that generate environmental waste.
• Through the distribution of these and other donated products to impoverished people, prevent millions of hygiene-related deaths each year, reduce the morbidity rate for hygiene-related illnesses, and encourage vigorous childhood development.

We implement our mission through:

• Collecting, sorting and processing discarded soap, shampoo conditioner and lotion product donations from participating hospitality partners.
• Collection of donated hygiene products from manufacturers.
• Recycling these product donations at facilities in Orlando, Fla., Las Vegas, and Hong Kong.
• Delivering these recycled product donations to domestic homeless shelters and developing countries suffering from high death rates due to acute respiratory infection and diarrheal disease.

Clean the World receives support from a variety of partners, including hotel companies, corporations outside the hospitality industry, service organizations, trade groups, and individual supporters. These partners contribute in four ways:

• Hotel recycling program fees
• Direct cash donations
• Grants
• Gift-in-kind donations

Many of the “gifts in kind” (GIK) are soap and hygiene amenities that provide social and economic value for the people we serve.

For information on our licensing terms and conditions:

Since 2009, Clean the World has grown to include 50 full-time employees in Orlando, Las Vegas, and Hong Kong. With projected growth, the organization is expected to employ 200 team members by 2017.

Clean the World’s mission to help people around the world is reflected in our hiring practices at home. Many Clean the World staff members were unemployed before being hired. Staff members bring a diversity of professional experiences. Some employees started as volunteers and worked their way into paid positions, while others began as independent contractors or part-time employees before converting to full-time status.

Clean the World staff members bring passion and professionalism to their jobs as they serve their local communities and the world. Whether they work in operations with soap recycling, or on the business side in communications, marketing, sales, or partner relations, our employees share a common goal: They are firmly committed to the mission of saving lives with soap.

Clean the World is committed to maintaining an environmentally and hygienically safe recycling process. As the world’s first and only high-volume soap recycler, we ensure that all bars of recycled soap are completely safe and will not harm the end user due to disease or pathogens.

After it is collected and shipped to a Clean the World Recycling Center, bar soap is first surface cleaned. The soap is then sterilized with a process that has been tested and validated by SGS North America. The sterilized soap is ground, and the soap grounds are inserted into a soap manufacturing line and pressed into new bars. The bars are boxed and wrapped on pallets for distribution to those in need all over the world.

MISSION