Las Vegan finds fresh start recycling hotel soaps for needy people

Though he never lived on the street, Bob McAbee had certainly wandered it, lost in a metaphorical sense, stringing together his days by drinking and gambling with great conviction.

It was while standing on the street 17 months ago that McAbee, 58, realized something had to change. He turned to God, prayed for guidance and enrolled in a program at the Las Vegas Rescue Mission. He stopped drinking and started living.

While McAbee credits his spirituality for getting clean and sober, he is using soap to help him stay that way. A lot of soap, about 10,000 pounds a month.

McAbee is the Las Vegas facility director for Clean the World, a nonprofit that recycles discarded hotel soaps and distributes them to homeless shelters and countries with high death rates caused by diarrheal diseases and pneumonia.

The nonprofit started in Orlando, Fla., in 2008 and now has a national network of 1,200 hotels that donate discarded soaps, shampoos, conditioners and lotions left behind by guests. Wynn Resorts Ltd.; Caesars Entertainment Corp.; and The Venetian and Palazzo, both owned by Las Vegas Sands Corp., have joined the movement locally. In May, using $250,000 in donations from the Harrah's Foundation, Clean the World opened a local processing facility.

To date, the nonprofit has delivered more than 9 million pounds of bar soap all over the world. The local facility handles product from 400 hotels on the West Coast and processes about 10,000 pounds of soap products daily, five days a week, Clean the World CEO Shawn Seipler says.

The group's stated mission is to help save lives, he says, while reducing landfill waste. The program has proven to be a good fit for local Strip resorts with green initiatives.

Caesars Entertainment has donated 62,000 pounds of soap and 44,000 pounds of bottled amenities in just more than a year, says Rick Mazer, regional president of Caesars Entertainment, western division. It feels good to participate in something like this, he adds.

"Everyone pulls that out of the rooms and throws it away," Mazer says, referring to used soap that guests leave behind. "Even as someone who would go to a hotel, you take for granted all those amenities. You never think about what happens to it afterwards."

Guests like the idea that hotels are doing this, says Jenny Yu, director of development and sustainability for Las Vegas Sands Corp. After a few trial runs during convention season, the company officially joined Clean the World in August.

"When we tell people we offer this program, they are all thrilled," Yu says.

The ultimate goal of Clean the World is to save lives with soap, Seipler says, whether it's a child in an impoverished country washing her hands or a man in Las Vegas making bars of it. The organization partners with the Las Vegas Rescue Mission to provide volunteer opportunities to people who are trying to turn their lives around. Like McAbee.

He started out as a volunteer in May and was offered the full-time position in September. Two to four other volunteers now help out at the facility, but Seipler plans to add employees as the operation expands. By 2012, the facility could employ as many as 30 people.

"They're offering people an opportunity like me to get a new start," says McAbee, who is still living at the shelter. He plans to get his own place in March. "Sometimes what people need is a helping hand. I've never felt better about myself than I do today."

McAbee, who is originally from Alabama, moved to Las Vegas in 1997. He found work as a furniture mover and was in demand during the boom years. But a 30-year addiction to alcohol interfered with his ability to keep a steady job. He bounced around, each time taking a job that wasn't as good as the one before and paid just a bit less. You tend to settle when you're drinking and gambling too much, McAbee says.

As the economy worsened, so did his drinking. From 2006 to 2010, things were particularly bad, until one day, McAbee found himself at a standstill on the corner of Sahara Avenue and Maryland Parkway. He turned left, then right and couldn't find a reason to go in any particular direction.

"That is the worst feeling ever, walking without absolutely nowhere to go," McAbee recalls. "I prayed about it, and said, 'I have to stop this insanity now.' "

He enrolled in the Rescue Mission's New Life Discipleship program, which helped him stop drinking and start working. His three years of experience working in a green-bean processing plant gave him a solid foundation for the warehouse work. Washing green beans and washing soap are very similar, McAbee notes.

Part of any recovery, McAbee says, is to help other people. And that's what his job with Clean the World enables him to do. As corny as it sounds, he thinks God meant for him to have this job.

"God doesn't want any kid to be without soap," McAbee says. "If I can be a small part of that, it's a blessing."

Contact reporter Sonya Padgett at
spadgett@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4564.
Follow @StripSonya on Twitter.