Frequently Asked Questions
Have a question about Clean the World or our programs? Please check out our FAQ’s below. Here, you can find answers about how we recycle soap, our Hospitality Soap Recycling Program, or our Customer Portal. You can also email us at partners@cleantheworld.org for additional questions. Thank you!
About Clean the World:
Clean the World is a social enterprise with the mission of saving millions of lives around the world. Clean the World leads a Global Hygiene Revolution to distribute recycled soap and hygiene products from more than 8,100+ hotel and resort partners to children and families in countries with a high death rate due to acute respiratory infection (pneumonia) and diarrheal diseases (cholera) – which are two of the top killers of children under 5. Since 2009, Clean the World has distributed more than 70 million bars of soap in 127 countries.
Clean the World accomplishes its mission by collecting and recycling discarded soap and plastic amenity bottles from participating hospitality partners. Through the distribution of these and other donated hygiene products to impoverished people, help prevent millions of hygiene-related illnesses and deaths every year.
Hand washing with soap significantly reduces the impact of two fatal diseases: acute respiratory infection and diarrheal disease. These are two of the top killers of children under 5 years old. To help save those lives, recycled soap is the primary ingredient in Clean the World’s global hygiene revolution.
Clean the World partners with hotel properties across the world to recycle their discarded soap and bottled amenities such as shampoo, conditioner, lotion, and body wash. All soap is recycled into new bars, and all bottles are recycled.
Participating hotels collect these hygiene products at their properties using Clean the World boxes. Once boxes are full, hotels ship them back to a Clean the World facility.
About Hospitality Recycling Program:
Welcome to the Clean the World family! You will soon receive a Welcome Kit containing helpful instructions and materials to train your team. We are here to answer any questions you have. Simply email partners@cleantheworld.org!
No, participating hotels must request new or replacement boxes from Clean the World. To request boxes, please log-in with your user name and password to the customer portal (portal.cleantheworld.org) and click or tap on the orange “Order Boxes” button through the Box Dashboard. If you need log-in credentials, please request at: cleantheworld.org/portal.
When the initial order is placed, the number of boxes that Clean the World will ship to the hotel property is based on room count and past participation history, not on the number of floors. If you believe this total is incorrect, please email partners@cleantheworld.org to update your box allocation.
Clean the World can accept any box or collection device containing soap and/or bottles. Simply contact partners@cleantheworld.org, and we will email you an extra shipping return label.
To ensure Clean the World reports accurate impact totals, we ask that you keep your soap and bottles in separate containers. To request collection boxes, please log-in to the customer portal (portal.cleantheworld.org), and click or tap on the orange “Order Boxes” button through the Box Dashboard. If you need log-in credentials, please request at: cleantheworld.org/portal.
Clean the World accepts all bathroom amenity bottles from hotel rooms including shampoo, lotion, conditioner, and body wash.
When your boxes are 100% full, it’s time to ship. To request a shipping return label, please access the customer portal (portal.cleantheworld.org), click or tap on the “Return Box” button and print your label through the Box Dashboard.
Please note: Each box should have a different tracking number. UPS will not pickup boxes with the same tracking number.
If you have a regularly scheduled UPS service, simply add the boxes to this pickup (make sure the boxes are labeled and ready for pick-up to avoid delays). If you need to schedule a UPS pickup, please schedule through the customer portal (portal.cleantheworld.org). Click or tap on the orange “Schedule Pickup” button, confirm your address, and choose a pickup date from the calendar.
Please note: pickups can only be scheduled for three business days or more in the future. If you have any issues with your pickup, please email partners@cleantheworld.org. Our team can work with UPS to ensure your pickup is successful.
Now, you can receive impact totals right from your customer portal. On the Impact Screen, you can get real-time feedback on how much soap you have collected, how many pounds of waste you’ve collected, how many bars of soap you have distributed, and historical totals.
First, please make sure your box is taped securely. We suggest you use two layers and tape all the way down the sides. Then, attach your shipping label on the top of the box with packing tape. You can also request clear shipping envelopes from UPS which protects your label.
About Recycling:
At a Clean the World facility, the soap is sanitized, grinded, and cut into new bars. The bars are then boxed for distribution.
Yes. The soap has been tested by SGS North America, a Florida state-certified testing facility. SGS purposely infects soap, which is then run through the standard Clean the World recycling process. As a result of the cleansing process, the soap has been given a 100 percent clean bill of health. All pathogens are successfully removed from the soap by this process.
Plastic bottles are first shredded to remove any residual liquid left inside. The shred is washed, dried, and made into plastic flake. That flake is then used to make new products like buckets.
The residual liquid (shampoo, conditioner, lotion, body wash) is recycled into various cleaning products like dishwasher detergent, all-purpose cleaner, and laundry detergent.
You are welcome to visit our Orlando headquarters to volunteer and see how we recycle bar soap. If interested, please email volunteers@cleantheworld.org for more information. Our plastic recycling takes place in Missouri and is not currently open to visitors but please check back for updates.
We recycle plastic hotel amenity bottles (shampoo, conditioner, lotion, and body wash bottles). These bottles are comprised of HDPE, LDPE, PET, and PP.
Not at this time. We recommend contacting your city’s local recycling service providers.
Yes, Clean the World utilizes UPS Carbon Neutral shipping for all small package shipping.
About Customer Portal:
Clean the World’s customer portal offers a unique opportunity for you to engage in socially responsible programs that deliver direct impact including soap distribution, hygiene education, emergency response, hygiene packaging events, and waste diversion. In a few simple steps, your team can access impact reports, order replacement boxes, print shipping labels, learn about Clean the World’s exciting programs, and manage users. For more information, please visit: cleantheworld.org/portal.
From any desktop or mobile phone, visit portal.cleantheworld.org and log-in with your account email address and password. To receive log-in credentials, please request at cleantheworld.org/portal.
Simply request a new password from the log-in screen (portal.cleantheworld.org). An email confirmation will be sent to you with a link to reset your password. If you do not receive an email within five minutes, please check your junk folder.
Your user name is the email address provided to us during set-up. Typically, this is your general mailbox for your property (property@hotelbrand.com). For more information or to change the address associated with the portal, please email partners@cleantheworld.org.
The portal makes it easy to add members of your team and assign different levels based on your needs. Simply tap on the Users Screen and navigate to the green “Add User” icon (upper right hand corner). Then, fill out information about your team member, assign his or her status, and send him or her an invitation to register. You may also edit users or update information as needed.
There are three types of users:
1. Admins are users that have full access to all portal features including creating new Users and Admins along with editing existing users. Please only assign admin rights to managers. It is possible to have multiple Admins per property as well as assign multiple properties to each user.
2. Users are day to day employees that only use the portal to manage the collection process. These users do not have access to user management and cannot alter specific fields in their Profile screen.
3. Inactive Users are employees that no longer work at your property and have had portal access disabled.
If at any time you experience an issue updating information or need to remove / change status of users, please email us at partners@cleantheworld.org and our team can assist you.
An email will be sent to your team member with instructions on accessing the portal. You can check on their status from your User menu.
There are four statuses available (these are color coded for your convenience):
1. No Invite Sent (bright red) – The user has not received an invite from you. Click or tap on the person’s name and orange “Send Invite” button at the top right of the edit user screen.
2. Pending – Invite Sent (orange) – The user has received an invite, but have not registered for portal access.
3. Active (green) – The user is active and is using the portal.
4. Inactive (dark red) – This user no longer has access to the portal and/or no longer works at your property.
Please note: After editing and updating the user status, please refresh your screen. If the user does not receive the registration email, please ask him or her to check their junk folder. The Clean the World team is here to assist you if you have any issues inviting or updating users. Please email partners@cleantheworld.org with questions.
From any screen on the portal, select a different property by tapping on the pencil icon on the upper right hand corner of the portal. This will provide you with a dropdown menu to choose a new property. If you need to add properties to the menu, please email partners@cleantheworld.org.
The Clean the World portal provides real-time updates on your Impact screen. As soon as Clean the World receives your full collection device, our team scans the box and uploads the impact totals to the portal. If you are not seeing impact information or believe the information is incorrect, please log out and log back in. If you are still experiencing issues, please email partners@cleantheworld.org for assistance.
We are sorry for your inconvenience. Pickups can only be scheduled for three business days or more in the future to ensure that UPS receives the information in time. If you have any issues with your pickup, please email partners@cleantheworld.org. Our team can work with UPS to ensure your pickup is successful.
We are sorry for the inconvenience. Our dedicated team is here to help you with ordering bins or creating shipping labels. Simply email partners@cleantheworld.org.
We are sorry you are experiencing difficulties. Please email partners@cleantheworld.org. We are happy to help!
Of course! Our client team can help with this request. Please email us at partners@cleantheworld.org and we will email you a label as soon as possible!
Your account may need attention. Please email partners@cleantheworld.org for more information.
Please visit cleantheworld.org/portal-icon for more instructions on adding an app icon to your iPhone or Android device.
You will automatically be upgraded to this new reporting! Please log out and log back into your account to activate the new features.
Please log out and log back into your Customer Portal account. If you are experiencing issues, email partners@cleantheworld.org for assistance.
You can filter your impact by date and, depending on your access level, by individual hotel, brand, flag and management company.
Click the green drop-down menu on the upper right-hand side. If you are on a mobile device, this drop-down menu is directly above the “SOAP” quadrant. You can choose between historical, this year, last year, this month, last month, this quarter, last quarter, or a customer date range.
Click between the gray boxes at the top of the page, above the 6 different quadrants. The box that is orange is the impact you are currently viewing.
Your historical impact data is representative of all soap and/or plastic amenity bottles collected from the day you started Clean the World’s Hospitality Recycling Program until the present day.
This could be due to more than one reason. If your hotel only collects plastic amenity bottles (no bar soap) you will show 0 on most of the impact indicators at this time. With new plastic recycling operations in place, we are in the process of re-calculating our impact to include plastic. Currently, most of the impact is calculated based on the collection and recycling of bar soap. The other reason could be that we haven’t received a shipment of soap or bottles from your hotel yet. If you think this is incorrect, please contact partners@cleantheworld.org for assistance.
Clean the World has historically utilized energy from waste technology to process plastic hotel amenities. Because of that, most of your hotel plastic is being counted in the “energy generated” category. That energy has been used to power homes and businesses! Coming soon, your plastic will be counted in the “waste recycled” category as we gather the necessary data on our new plastic recycling operation.
Coming soon! We will be releasing a feature that allows you to export your impact report. Check back for updates.
Those colorful icons represent the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that correlate with the impact inside of each section. Click on them to learn more!
About Impact Reporting
Clean the World is a social enterprise with the mission of saving millions of lives around the world. Clean the World leads a Global Hygiene Revolution to distribute recycled soap and hygiene products from more than 8,100+ hotel and resort partners to children and families in countries with a high death rate due to acute respiratory infection (pneumonia) and diarrheal diseases (cholera) – which are two of the top killers of children under 5. Since 2009, Clean the World has distributed more than 70 million bars of soap in 127 countries.
Clean the World accomplishes its mission by collecting and recycling discarded soap and plastic amenity bottles from participating hospitality partners. Through the distribution of these and other donated hygiene products to impoverished people, help prevent millions of hygiene-related illnesses and deaths every year.
Hand washing with soap significantly reduces the impact of two fatal diseases: acute respiratory infection and diarrheal disease. These are two of the top killers of children under 5 years old. To help save those lives, recycled soap is the primary ingredient in Clean the World’s global hygiene revolution.
Clean the World partners with hotel properties across the world to recycle their discarded soap and bottled amenities such as shampoo, conditioner, lotion, and body wash. All soap is recycled into new bars, and all bottles are recycled.
Participating hotels collect these hygiene products at their properties using Clean the World boxes. Once boxes are full, hotels ship them back to a Clean the World facility.
Our dedicated operations team weighs all inbound shipments of soap and bottles. The shipping label is connected to your hotel’s account, and when scanned, those weights are added to your profile.
The Clean the World portal provides real-time updates on your Impact screen. As soon as Clean the World receives your full box, our team scans the box and uploads the impact totals to the portal. If you are not seeing impact information or believe the information is incorrect, please email partners@cleantheworld.org
Clean the World partnered with Greenview to enhance the proprietary reporting that we provide to our hotel partners. The basis behind each impact metric is volume of soap or bottles collected. In order to identify, measure, and analyze the environmental impacts of the entire life cycle of the soap recycling process, which cover energy, water, carbon, waste, and materials footprint, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was adopted. LCA is a tool widely used to analyze the impacts of an object/operation/service across its value chain, i.e., from raw material extraction and production to disposal.Upon completion of this LCA, coefficients and conversion factors were provided in order to calculate the individual impact metrics.
To learn more about the UN Sustainable Goals, please visit https://sdgs.un.org/goals
If your hotel is in Europe, please visit FAQ Europe.