Vietnam’s first Radisson Blu resort is helping to save lives in disadvantaged communities, generate livelihoods, and protect the environment through supporting a soap recycling program.

Radisson Blu Resort Phu Quoc, which opened its doors on Vietnam’s largest island on August 15 this year, has joined forces with hygiene and cleaning solutions company Diversey to participate in ‘Soap for Hope’.

As part of the program, the resort hands over its used hotel soaps that are recycled into fresh soap to be distributed to local communities. Diversey teaches the local people to use a simple cold-press process that requires no water or electricity and takes under 10 minutes to recycle the soap into reconstituted bars.  The fresh soap is then distributed to communities lacking soap or sanitation.

The local people make a small livelihood from the initiative and their communities have free access to soap, which is crucial in preventing life-threatening illnesses through proper hand-washing.

Radisson Blu Resort Phu Quoc’s general manager Peter Feran said he and his team were keen to throw their support behind Diversey’s initiative and divert soap waste from landfills.

“There’s a trifecta of positives here; we help save lives by helping to provide access to free soap, we help create livelihoods for local communities and we significantly reduce our impact on the environment,” said Feran.  “We’re honored to do the right thing by our communities and contribute to a cleaner and healthier Vietnam.”

Since Soap for Hope began in Vietnam in 2015, Diversey estimates 80,000 kilograms of soap waste has been converted into more than 660,000 bars of soap that have been distributed to children in Lao Cai, Yen Bai, Ha Giang, Dien Bien, Son La, Binh Dinh, Khanh Hoa, Ho Chi Minh and Hoa Binh.

Since its opening, Radisson Blu Resort Phu Quoc has rolled out numerous measures designed to protect the environment such as introducing a fleet of electric vehicles including buggies, scooters and minivans, as well as implementing bamboo straws instead of plastic straws.  The resort has ambitions to harvest its own bamboo straws in the near future and be the first international hotel in Vietnam to have its own bamboo straw farm.

Radisson Blu Resort Phu Quoc is also as paperless as possible with in-room menus available on the guest room TVs, and digital signage located throughout the resort, instead of paper. The resort also has a Press Reader application offering more than 5000 magazines and newspapers in various languages.

For more information about Radisson Blu Resort Phu Quoc, please visit https://www.radissonblu.com/en/resort-phuquoc

For further information about Soap for Hope, visit www.diversey.com