Some people feel a twinge of guilt at hotel checkout time when they see the small bottles of complimentary soap and shampoo that will be thrown out when they leave the room.

Cruise ship shampoo that formerly would have been thrown away is now going to the homeless and needy.

For cruise lines the guilt is all that much greater.

"You start doing the math," said Stein Kruse, CEO and president of Holland America Cruises. "You take thousands of people, thousands of these bottles and you multiply over several weeks and months the numbers go into the tens if not the hundreds of thousands."

Until recently those thousands of shampoo bottles and soaps, used or unused, all went one place: landfills.

But then the cruise line came up with a new use for the discarded items. They are now collected, separated into bins and brought through Customs at ports of call.

The process is more labor-intensive and time-consuming than just throwing it out, and the cruise line won't make any profit for the extra work. It is donating the goods to the homeless and needy.

The program, called Ship to Shelter, started last year in Seattle, Washington, where Holland America is based. In January it expanded to Port Everglades, near Fort Lauderdale, Florida...

P&O Cruises partners with Mission Australia
Date: 03 Feb 2009

P&O Cruises Australia is collecting reusable goods from its ships and donating them to one of the country’s major charities, Mission Australia, under an innovative new community-giving program.

Two truckloads of good-condition items were collected from the cruise line’s storage facility recently including almost 2500 bed spreads, 11 rollaway beds, 21 cots plus bathrobes and even coffee pots.

Mission Australia also received 70 personal computers from P&O Cruises’ headquarters in St Leonards, Sydney.

The goods will be distributed by Mission Australia to those in need or used to help raise money for their services.

Mission Australia is one of the nation’s leading community service organisations with over 450 services which last year helped more than 330,000 people.

Through its programs and services, Mission Australia combats homelessness; assists families and children overcome hardship; supports disadvantaged young people; delivers entry-level training; and helps unemployed people find permanent work.

Ann Sherry, CEO of Carnival Australia, which operates P&O Cruises in Australia, said it was the first time P&O Cruises had established a formal partnership to ensure reusable and valuable items from our ships were put to good use.

"The project not only helps those in our community who need an extra hand, but is another way for us to reduce waste from our operations in a socially conscious and sustainable way," Ms Sherry said.

"Our ships are like floating resorts and we are regularly upgrading items such as bedspreads, linen, towels, dishes, crockery and cookware that are in good condition and can easily be re-used.

"P&O Cruises has a strong culture of giving and we are very excited about this partnership with Mission Australia, which helps take this to the next level."

Toby Hall, Mission Australia’s CEO, said the goods would prove extremely valuable – both in terms of being on-sold by the organisation to help raise money for its services and for distribution among individuals and families doing it tough in uncertain economic times.

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Zuiderdam Donates 800 Crew Mattresses to Red Cross in Costa Rica
Roland | February 25th, 2009

This story was submitted by Zuiderdam’s environmental officer, Ralph Bladen.

During a recent staff meeting we were discussing the task of changing all 800 crew mattresses. We decided that the best way to achieve this would be to complete the project in stages of 200 mattresses at a time.

We decided that light loading days in Fort Lauderdale were the best days to take on the new mattresses. It’s OK getting new mattresses, but what are we going to do with the old ones?

As the ship’s environmental officer, I approached the ship agent in Puerto Limon, Costa Rica, and asked if he could help. Without a moment’s hesitation Jorge said he would contact the Red Cross and see if they could use that many mattresses.

Within 24 hours Jorge informed me that Puerto Limon had recently suffered from severe flooding and a minor earthquake and the families in the local area had many of their homes literally washed away.

On 24th February, 2009, we commenced our first offload of 200 mattresses into a lorry provided by the Red Cross. the ship agent was overwhelmed by the idea and could not thank the ship enough for helping to make the lives of the people of Puerto Limon bearable as they try to put their lives and homes back together again.

It is worth a special mention to Chief Housekeeper Mario and his hard-working housekeeping staff to thank them for making the loading and donation process run so smoothly.

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Originally posted by PamM:
I would ask just why is so much stuff going to waste in the first place.

Pam

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My first thought to Pam. Something to do with Hygiëne???