044VOL. 44 From Edible Oil to Soap - Eco-friendly Recycling

2019.6.27 Thu.

Aiming to be an ecologically clean hotel of the 21st century, in 1991, Keio Plaza Hotel established a Waste Guidance Committee, and engaged in various environmental protection efforts around the hotel.

Amongst them is the reuse and separation of waste cooking oil from the hotel kitchens that began in 1992. Specialists collect the vegetable oil (waste cooking oil), and through dehydration and filtration, turn it into a pure concentrated fatty acid; a cosmetic raw material that can be made into recycled soap. In 2009, it was refined into mild liquid soap that is gentle on the skin, and is used in some staff washrooms.

Waste cooking oil if washed into our drains leads to water pollution, if burnt leads to carbon dioxide pollution. Therefore, recycling not only achieves waste reduction, it has created an environmentally friendly and sustainable usage in our staff facilities.