Out of Eden celebrates first sign up to national toiletry recycling scheme

Cumbrian hospitality suppliers Out of Eden and the Netherwood Hotel & Spa are joining forces to tackle single-use plastic waste in the hospitality industry.

With an estimated 70 million bars of hard soap and an incredible 200 million travel size toiletries thrown away each year, Out of Eden are partnering with Maidenheadbased charity and social enterprise CleanConscience™ to create a toiletry recycling scheme accessible and convenient for accommodation providers across the UK.

CleanConscience™ was born from a growing awareness surrounding the detrimental impact single-use plastic has on the environment. One of the biggest contributors, especially in the hospitality sector, is mini toiletries. Mike Gannon, Out of Eden’s managing director, explains: “Sustainability is very high on Out of Eden’s agenda and we are acutely aware of the issues of single use plastics in the hospitality industry.

We acknowledge that our product range still includes travel-size toiletries, but by working closely with CleanConscience™ we are offering a solution for products to be disposed of in a safe and sustainable way.” Instead of discarding the contents of the toiletries as waste – which due to the size and nature of the packaging often end up in landfill – CleanConscience™ offer an alternative by repurposing, reusing and redistributing the contents and bottles in ways that benefit the wider community. The process involves collecting, decanting and rebottling otherwise wasted liquid toiletries and hard soaps, and the leftover contents are turned into care kits for women’s shelters, refugee camps and for others in desperate need of hygiene products. The hard soaps are cleaned and processed into raw materials and supplied to smallscale overseas manufacturers to help them generate in income.

In January 2020, the CleanConscience™ scheme took a huge step forward when Out of Eden celebrated their first sign up with one of Cumbria’s foremost hotels, the Netherwood Hotel & Spa in Grange-over-Sands. Gannon goes on to say that: “Previously, access to CleanConscience’s fantastic initiative was limited to Londonbased hotels due to location and logistics, however our partnership with CleanConscience™ allows hotels, bed and breakfasts, self catering properties and more to get involved on a national scale. We are delighted to be working in partnership with the Netherwood to ensure greener hospitality, and encourage more businesses across the UK to get involved with this great scheme.”

Gayle Winstanley, the Netherwood Hotel’s assistant general manager explains that “although we are opting for refillable toiletry options where appropriate, we are delighted to still offer smaller toiletries that can now be repurposed and benefit the wider community on a national and global scale.” As an incentive to get involved with the scheme, each business that signs up will receive a framed certificate of participation as well as other promotional materials, free collections of the toiletries, and £5 credit on their Out of Eden account each time a collection is subsequently received at CleanConscience ™ .

(Pictured left to right: Claire Armstrong and Mike Gannon from Out of Eden, and Gayle Winstanley and Courtney Coglan from the Netherwood Hotel)