What happens to the unfinished open soaps in hotel bathrooms?

What happens to the unfinished open soaps in hotel bathrooms? - Person Holding on Door Lever Inside Room

Inspired by what I (and many others) thought this question would be about:

What happens to all the half-used (or more likely 5% used) soaps in hotel bathrooms?

You check into a hotel. You open a soap that's big enough to last you a fortnight. But you're only staying for two nights. What happens to it when you're gone?

Is it simply binned? Do the maids (and other staff?) take it home and never have to buy their own soap? Or is it recycled, melted down with all the other leftovers and used to create new ones? ("Melted" is almost certainly the wrong word, but "dissolved" sounded boring. And I don't make soap so I don't know if neither word is correct.) Is the International Maids Union secretly hoarding them all with the plan of one day unleashing them on tiled hotel corridors and making all the guests slip over?

(I'm almost certain they just get binned. But that's less fun than the alternatives.)






Pictures about "What happens to the unfinished open soaps in hotel bathrooms?"

What happens to the unfinished open soaps in hotel bathrooms? - Interior of bathroom with white wrapped towel near ceramic basin and faucet with mirror on wall
What happens to the unfinished open soaps in hotel bathrooms? - Brown Wooden Window Frame
What happens to the unfinished open soaps in hotel bathrooms? - Young woman cleaning teeth in bathroom



What do hotels do with the leftover soap?

Once the old soap arrives in one of Clean the World's warehouses (which you can find in India, 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.

Can you melt old soap?

You can melt soap in the microwave, just be sure to use microwave-safe dishes. Use glycerine soap pieces or bar (other soaps may explode in the microwave), and grate or chop the soap into very small pieces. Put the pieces into a microwave-safe dish and either add a lid or microwave-safe food wrap to prevent splatters.

Do hotels have soap?

Plenty of hotels \u2014 most, in fact \u2014 provide a lot products for free, and it's not just the soap and shampoo you always find in your room. Some hotels even go beyond the essentials, offering some pretty sweet perks to guests. But if you aren't staying at one of those hotels, rest assured you can still get some freebies.



What happens to your hotel soap after you check out




Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Images: Pixabay, Max Vakhtbovych, ENGY NAGUIB, Andrea Piacquadio