Yesterday, Hilton Worldwide announced a soap recycling initiative in place in Australia had been extended to include all five of its New Zealand properties, including in Queenstown.
Under the initiative all leftover soap at the Hilton and Double Tree hotels will be collected and, in partnership with distribution company Bunzl and non-profit soap recycling organisation Soap Aid, sanitised and processed into new bars.
These will be sent to vulnerable countries — particularly those with underprivileged children and communities affected by disasters.
The soap initiative began in Australia in August last year and, to date, 5.8 tonnes of used soap has been collected and used to produce more than 58,000 bars of recycled soap.
While the initiative was only officially launched in New Zealand yesterday, Hilton Queenstown Resort & Spa and Double Tree by Hilton Queenstown started stockpiling used soap about two months ago.
The property — which has 318 rooms — has already collected 150kg of soap for recycling.
Hilton Queenstown general manager Chris Ehmann said the initiative in the resort had been led by the property’s housekeeping staff, who had challenged other hotels in the resort to join the project.
Participating hotels so far were the Sherwood Hotel, Heritage Queenstown, Millennium Queenstown, Queenstown Park Hotel, Novotel Queenstown, Nugget Point Queenstown Hotel and Edgewater Resort Wanaka.
Soap would be collected at each hotel and then delivered to the Hilton for quarterly shipping to Soap Aid, which was being provided free of charge by Bunzl, Mr Ehmann said.
He was thrilled with the support to date from other hotels in the resort, he said.
"This initiative reinforces our commitment to minimise our waste while [also building] a better and more sustainable world.
"We continue to challenge all other Queenstown hotels to send us their soap."
