Saving lives with soap: SapoCycle
Dietikon, 7 July 2021
They’re small, gentle to the touch and smell divine: hotel soaps. We all use them once or maybe twice. But who cares what happens to them afterwards? We do. That’s why we support SapoCycle.
Wash your hands
With the arrival of COVID-19, this simple rule finally hit home in the western world. Every year, more than 1.5 million children under the age of five still die from diseases that could have been prevented by washing hands. Clearly that figure is too high.
That’s why we’re doing our bit for soap recycling – together with the charity SapoCycle. At ‘Planzer Parcel’, we collect the soaps from partner hotels and organise transport of the recycled soaps within Switzerland – closing the loop and ensuring the programme runs efficiently.
Bubbles Saving Lives
The non-profit organisation SapoCycle collects discarded soaps from environmentally minded Swiss hotels. At its recycling workshops, people with disabilities produce new soaps in a process that is subject to strict bacteriological controls. SapoCycle distributes these free of charge to families in need around the world, helping to improve hygiene conditions.
Since 2015, SapoCycle has recycled just under 17 tonnes of discarded soaps from over 140 Swiss hotels. Day after day, the hotel staff contribute to the ‘Bubbles Saving Lives’ programme by collecting the soaps that hotel guests have left behind.
To recycle the soaps, SapoCycle works with Wohnwerk (Basel) and Adapei Papillons Blancs (Alsace). These institutions provide work for people with disabilities. They are responsible for chopping and crushing the discarded soaps and reprocessing them to produce hygienic new bars of soap under strict bacteriological controls.
A circular approach
As a Swiss family-owned company, sustainability and the circular economy are part of our DNA. That’s why we’re helping SapoCycle to improve health conditions for people living in poverty and to integrate people with disabilities into our society. We also provide SapoCycle with access to our logistics and recycling processes.
‘The fact that we are able to count on Planzer’s professionalism and geographical reach in Switzerland makes our work with the hotels easier and increases the overall quality of the process.’
Dorothée Schiesser, founder and President of SapoCycle
By the way
Next time you pick up a bar of hotel soap, ask yourself whether you really need to open it. Maybe you’ll be reminded of some of the images in this video.
Video: Planzer Parcel supports SapoCycle’s soap recycling initiative
