Can Hotel Soap Save Lives?

An Orlando-based nonprofit that collects and recycles used hotel soap and shampoo for distribution to third world countries says it is saving children's lives, with stuff that used to be thrown away.

Based on its success, Clean the World, founded by two road warriors 15 months ago, tells USA Today it is expanding, opening a new recycling center in Las Vegas and additional collection centers and hopes to launch a program later this year where individual travelers can participate by shipping in their own used hotel products.

Some 200 hotels and B&Bs across the U.S. currently pay to participate in the recycling program – one of the latest to sign up was The New York Palace Hotel in New York – and Crystal Cruises is collecting leftover soap products for CTW as well.

According to CTW's website, more than 5 million lives are lost each year, the majority are children under five, from infectious diseases that could have been prevented by proper hand-washing.

CTW last year distributed more than 230 tons of sterilized and re-batched hygiene products to Haiti, Mexico, Romania and other countries in Asia and Africa.