Every day in the United States alone, one to 1.5 million bars of soap are thrown away along with other bathroom amenities like shampoo. These unused soaps and bathroom amenities can be sanitized and distributed to millions around the world to help stop the spread of and deaths from diarrheal disease and acute respiratory infections.

Every year 3.5 million children under the age of five die because of two deadly diseases: acute respiratory injection (pneumonia) and diarrheal disease (cholera). The most tragic part of this statistic is that up to 65 percent of these deaths could be prevented through simple hand washing with a bar of soap. Clean the World has teamed up with more than 260 hospitality partners across the nation to recycle their unused soap and bathroom amenities. Once collected and sanitized they distribute them to those in need in more than 50 countries worldwide, including some of the poorest regions in Africa, the Caribbean and Central America.

The Meritage Resort and Spa’s partnership with Clean the World will initially support 131 children with enough soap and 65 children with enough bottled amenities for an entire year. When the resort’s 165 room expansion is complete in Spring 2012 those numbers are expected to more than double. Soap will be provided to an estimated 266 children and 132 will receive bottled amenities each year. Not only will this effort help children around the world, but it will also help to remove approximately two tons of waste from our landfills each year.

“This program doesn’t just protect the environment, it saves lives,” said Sheri Thomas, director of sales and marketing for The Meritage Resort and Spa. “We are proud to be able to partner with Clean the World to help prevent needless illness and death around the world.”

This is part of The Meritage Resort and Spa’s continued effort to be a more environmentally-friendly resort. In addition to recycling soap and bathroom amenities, the resort utilizes compact fluorescent light bulbs throughout the property and places recycle bins next to every trash can on the premises – including guest rooms. It has also replaced all paper products with recycled paper products where possible, including facial tissue, toilet paper and paper towels. The resort also uses reusable tote bags and compostable to-go containers, biodegradable silverware and greenware plastic cups and plates rather than traditional plasticware.