Laguna Beach, CA, Becomes First to Partner Citywide with Clean the World

Guest room soaps and bottled amenities (shampoos, conditioners, lotions and gels) from 22 lodging establishments will be recycled for worldwide distribution to stop the spread of preventable diseases.

LAGUNA BEACH, Calif. and ORLANDO, Fla., Nov. 7, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Now 22 hotels and lodging properties know that recycling soap to save lives is something they can all agree on. 

The Laguna Beach Visitors & Conference Bureau (LBVCB) announced today that all of the hospitality industry lodging properties with 20 rooms or more in this picturesque, coastal Orange County city have partnered with Clean the World Global LLC, a social enterprise committed to saving lives and protecting our planet. Hospitality partners here will collect and recycle hotel soaps, shampoos, conditioners, lotions and gels to help fight the global spread of preventable diseases.

Laguna Beach has 18 hotel and lodging properties with 20 rooms or more and four properties with less than 20 rooms that have joined the Clean the World hospitality partnership program. These properties include Aliso Creek Inn, Art Hotel Laguna Beach, Best Western Plus Laguna Brisas Spa Hotel, Capri Laguna, Carriage House, Casa Laguna Inn, Crescent Bay Inn, Holiday Inn Laguna Beach, Hotel Laguna, Inn at Laguna Beach, La Casa del Camino, Laguna Beach Inn, Laguna Cliffs Inn, Laguna Riviera, Montage Laguna Beach, Pacific Edge Hotel, Seacliff Laguna Inn, Sunset Cove Villas, Surf & Sand Resort and Spa, The Tides Laguna Beach, The Retreat, and Travelodge Laguna Beach. The properties represent more than 1,200 guest rooms in Laguna Beach.

Clean the World has hospitality partnerships with more than 1,200 hotel properties throughout North America, including 143 partners in California. Clean the World's California hospitality partners have contributed 70,329 lbs. of soap and 67,844 lbs. of bottled amenities since the organization's founding in 2009. That equates to 375,088 bars (3 oz. apiece), which is enough to provide 75,018 children with enough soap for an entire month.

This program symbolizes the LBVCB's hospitality partners ongoing commitment to sustainable and environmental programs, the reduction of hotel waste in local landfills, and the benefits of recycling hotel soaps and bottled amenities (shampoos, conditioners, lotions and gels) as hygiene products to benefit children and families in need.

Clean the World is the largest global recycler of hotel amenities, and in just two years of operation has distributed more than 9 million bars of soap to children and families in the United States, Canada and more than 45 countries worldwide, while also fulfilling a valuable environmental mission by diverting an estimated 600 tons of hotel waste from polluting landfills in the United States and Canada.

"We're impressed by the efforts of Clean the World and wanted to show our support in a unique way by becoming the first citywide program to embrace its lifesaving mission," says Judy Bijlani, President/CEO of the Laguna Beach Visitors & Conference Bureau. "Our seaside village is an inviting retreat for art lovers, environmentalists and beach enthusiasts, and the idea of recycling soaps and protecting our planet is something we wholeheartedly support."

Each day 9,000 children around the world die from diseases such as acute respiratory illness and diarrheal diseases that can be prevented by washing with bar soap. Clean the World has a mission to put soap in the hands of people who need it most to improve hygiene and sanitation conditions to lessen the impact of disease and promote better hygiene and living conditions worldwide.

"Laguna Beach is Southern California's premier seaside destination, and a city deserving of praise for its promotion of sustainability and social responsibility," says Shawn Seipler, CEO and co-founder of Clean the World. "Our hotel partners in Laguna Beach should be applauded for their collaboration on this unique partnership and its distinction of being our first municipality to embrace Clean the World's mission to recycle soap and save lives. I hope the efforts of the LBVCB will inspire other communities, municipalities and cities to do the same."

About Laguna Beach Visitors & Conference Bureau
The Laguna Beach Visitors & Conference Bureau is a non-profit marketing organization developed to promote and protect the brand of Laguna Beach for the membership and the community. The LBVCB was formed in 1986 as a private, non-profit industry association. The Bureau's primary role is to market the City of Laguna Beach both locally and globally. For more information, please visit: www.lagunabeachinfo.com. For more information about LBVCB and members working toward sustainability and socially responsible programs, please visit: www.greenlagunabeach.com.

About Clean the World Global LLC
Clean the World Global LLC is a social enterprise committed to saving lives and protecting our planet. It offers sustainable, socially responsible, and charitable programs and services to the international hospitality community. Clean the World Foundation Inc. is the 501 (c) (3) charitable arm of Clean the World Inc. As a private foundation Clean the World Foundation Inc. executes its mission of saving millions of lives around the globe by leading a global hygiene revolution to distribute recycled soap and hygiene products to children and families suffering from high death rates due to the top two killers of children worldwide – acute respiratory infection (pneumonia) and diarrheal diseases (cholera). For more information visit: www.cleantheworld.org. Text CLEAN to 20222 to donate $10 to help Clean the World.

Media Contact 
Lana Johnson, Communications                               
Laguna Beach Visitors & Conference Bureau                    
[email protected]                                                        
(949) 212-1499                                                          

LBVCB Contact:                                                                           
Judith A. Bijlani, President/CEO                                
Laguna Beach Visitors & Conference Bureau          
361 Forest Ave., #200                                                
Laguna Beach, CA  92651                                         
(949) 376-0511                                                          
[email protected]                                    
www.lagunabeachinfo.com                                       

Clean the World Contact:
Matt Gomez, Communications Director
Clean the World
400A Pittman St.
Orlando, FL 32801
(407) 421-9365 cell
[email protected]
www.cleantheworld.org

SOURCE Laguna Beach Visitors & Conference Bureau