“51 million soaps are thrown away each year by hotels in France. And yet, 3 million people cannot afford basic hygiene products,” states the founder of Unisoap.
If you spend just one night in a hotel and even if you only use the soap provided once, hygiene dictates that it will be discarded! Based on this alarming observation, Pauline Grumel decided in 2018 to launch a recycling organization.
The entrepreneur worked with an engineer to successfully recycle these soaps and bring them up to hygiene standards: “and above all, this process had to be adapted for people with disabilities since we were going to work with an ESAT”, she specifies.
Thus, Pauline and her team developed a machine capable of transforming small soaps into a 100-gram bar. These new soaps are distributed to various organizations for those in need. “Families in precarious situations who come to the Restos du cœur, but it can also be people living on the streets… isolated women and even students for whom precariousness has only increased in recent years.”
The organization has also created “hygiene kits” (soap, toothbrush, toothpaste, and shampoo) made from unsold items from several brands. The little extra? These kits are presented in small transport pouches made by seamstresses from recovered hotel sheets.
