Goodness, it’s been a long time since I’ve written anything really interesting on our blog. Partly because I was caught up with the usual day to day running of the business and home affairs – and partly because we had to keep this new project under wraps until it was officially launched this month. It lines up perfectly with our efforts to engage in more zero-waste efforts.
On 5th December 2018, the Soapful project by Sunway Hotels and Resorts was announced to the public at a media event, where it pledged its commitment to fulfilling the 12th of 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) which is to do with responsible consumption and production. Specifically, with regards to addressing the usual practice in the hospitality industry which is to discard used hotel soap bars after just a handful of uses.
(Read the story that was carried by The Star in their Metro section.)
In this particular project, Sunway Hotels is partnering with Ecolab (a global company that provides water, hygiene and energy technologies to all sorts of industries – you should visit their website, their range of services is astounding), and Kinder Soaps to undertake the recovery and repurposing of used hotel soap bars collected from its various properties around Peninsular Malaysia, and then distributing it to the Selangor Youth Community (SAY) as a possible means for them to engage in entrepreneurship training amongst young adults.
Kinder Soaps took the first delivery of roughly 100kg of Sunway’s used hotel soap bars, cleaned and repurposed them, and produced 1,000bars which were then presented to Pertubuhan Kebajikan Anak Yatim Darul Ehsan Malaysia (PKAYDEM) at the media launch.
(Pauses to take a mental breath)
This is a something significant to us, as it involves Kinder Soaps in a movement that extends far beyond what I imagined our company could achieve on its own. We have been working on this project since July this year. Actually come to think of it, the whole thing began in May – and it very nearly didn’t materialise at all. Here’s what happened (the story you won’t find reported in the media):
Amidst the slightly more frenzied pace of work in the middle of the year, I took a call from one of Ecolab’s staff who told me about this soap recycling project they had in mind. After finding out who Ecolab was, and understanding the size of their typical client (they had yet to mention who their client was for this particular project), I suggested that they try to look up a bigger soap manufacturer in NPRA’s list of cosmetics manufacturers – because I thought Kinder Soaps was far too small to take it on. They accepted my suggestion, and I thought, that was that.
June rolled around, and yet another email arrived from Ecolab from a different member of staff, enquiring about the possibility of collaborating on a CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) project related to soap recycling. Again, I found myself suggesting them an alternative to working with us, because we had no excess soap to offer them for their original CSR activity (plus, that was the period when we were preparing for our GMP audit, so we were all a little flustered from making sure that we had our paperwork etc in order before the auditors were due to visit the studio). I thought it was such a pity we wouldn’t be able to work with them, but I also felt we would not be in a position to effectively help them in the long run because of our limited supply of soap scraps to recycle. If you are a regular customer with us, you’d know we only make as much soap as our customers require – and we often find ourselves out of stock for the more popular ones.
Finally however, in July I met with Ecolab Singapore and Malaysia’s Managing Director, Mr Ong Kian Tick, where he revealed who their client was, and what they had in mind for the CSR project. He introduced Kinder Soaps to Sunway Hotels and Resorts’ CEO André Scholl, its Regional Senior General Manager Kelly Leong, and Group Director of Brand Marketing & Communications, Farizal Jaafar. At that first meeting, I still remember feeling like I was in an out-of-body experience, not quite believing what we were discussing around the table, and who I was with.
We were essentially presented with a long-term opportunity to actually do something to recover perfectly usable soap, and save them from being tossed into landfills. Packaged in paper, the way I would be happy with. No plastic shrink wrap. Everything done by hand, and we would be able to pass along our know-how about soap rebatching to the disenfranchised, which would hopefully give them access to a skill that could potentially stir up their entrepreneurial spirit. While it isn’t the perfect solution to curbing soap waste from the hospitality industry, I think it’s still a step in the right direction to get society thinking about what it really means to adopt more sustainable consumption habits.
What noone else realised was that I had been thinking about soap recycling as a service for Kinder Soaps, for years. But at the back of my mind, I also knew we just didn’t have the kind of network nor resources to actively pursue it, especially since we are already so caught up with business-as-usual. And yet somehow, someone took a gamble on contacting us, connected all the dots and eventually made my dream a reality – even after I had voluntarily turned down the opportunity twice.
I can’t think of a better Christmas gift for Kinder Soaps (actually, I can – it’s that we rapidly reach more new customers so we can sell more soap in the long run, haha…! XD You can check out our soap bars here).
Seriously though, I’m so grateful at how things have panned out so far for the Soapful project. It has been quite a challenge to reach this stage (many rounds of trial and error to figure out the most efficient way to rebatch the used hotel soap bars – it’s pretty tedious work, I can tell you that). Our production crew pulled many long days and nights to ensure everything got done and delivered on time for the launch. Hopefully there won’t be any more 2am soap wrapping sessions after this…! And we had the privilege of working with a bunch of lovely people from Sunway’s PR and Communications team, namely Farizal, Stephanie, Chandrika and Jen Mun – thank you all for the hard work you did to make everything come together. I’m sorry I gave you a heart attack by getting the delivery numbers wrong at the last minute. :”) Looking forward to continuing to develop the Soapful programme through the year with you all.
As always, I believe we wouldn’t be where we are today, were it not for the continued support from our suppliers, customers, friends and family all these years. Thank you so much.
Speaking of family, the 5th of December is also my father’s birthday! So that same evening as the media launch, my family all got together to celebrate his 68th trip around the sun:
I attribute my optimism, curiosity and sense of idealism to my dad. It’s genetic, perhaps somewhat perplexing to people who don’t understand our brand of humour, and it’s contagious. 
Happy birthday Daddy, this “win” for Kinder Soaps is dedicated to you, and Mummy. <3
More writeups, videos and blogposts on the event:
Newspapers
Blogs
- Hans Hanis (Thank you for making the effort to insert your own commentary on the event, I enjoyed reading it!)
- Sunshine Kelly
- Malaysian Foodie
- Tall Pisces Girl
News Portals
Videos
- Tags: SunwaySoapful