Clean the World and Caesars Foundation Open New Las Vegas Soap Recycling Center

At a ceremonial ribbon-cutting event, representatives from the Clean the World Foundation, a nonprofit organization that collects, recycles and distributes recycled hotel soaps and bottled amenities (shampoo, conditioner, lotion etc.), and Caesars Foundation opened a new soap recycling facility in Las Vegas to help stop the spread of preventable diseases in communities worldwide.

The Las Vegas Recycling Operations Center, located at 3111 S. Valley View Blvd., will serve as the soap and bottled amenities collection center and bar soap recycling site for all hotel partners in the western region of the United States.

Thanks to $250,000 in grants from the Caesars Foundation and founding partner, Caesars Entertainment Corporation, hotel soap can now be quickly processed and redistributed to those in need in the community and around the world decreasing preventable illnesses and disease related deaths.

"The Caesars Foundation's multiple grants have enabled us to substantially increase our operational capacity, diverting tons of soap and amenity-related waste from local landfills," says Shawn Seipler, CEO of Clean the World. "It is fantastic to see such a collective effort from the gaming companies and their employees in Las Vegas to help others around the world."

During the past year, Las Vegas has quickly become one Clean the World's largest soap donating communities in the western United States with organizations such as Caesars Entertainment donating more than 100,000 pounds of soap last year.  Each bar of gently used soap is collected by housekeepers and then hygienically treated at the facility. Caesars Entertainment and its housekeeping staff have collected more than 40 tons of soap since implementing the program at its resort casinos nationwide.

"Our employees' enthusiasm and commitment to help the cause is contagious and visible at every level of our organization," says Rick Mazer, regional president for Caesars Entertainment. "It is humbling to think of the many lives saved and the reduced environmental impact we are having by recycling something as common as soap."

More than 5 million lives are lost each year the majority of whom are children to diseases such as acute respiratory infection and diarrheal disease caused by improper hygiene and lack of soap. By recycling used hotel soap and bottled amenities and distributing them to areas that do not have access to these essential items, Clean the World hopes to save millions of lives.

In just three years, Clean the World has distributed nearly 10 million bars of soap to children and families in the United States, Canada and more than 45 countries around the world, preventing more than 1.2 million pounds of waste from polluting North American landfills.

The next planned distribution of soaps from Las Vegas 10,000 soap bars will go to Ethiopia in early March.

To learn more about Clean the World visit www.cleantheworld.org.