064: Samir Lakhani of Project EcoSoap - Recycled soap and hygiene education around the world
A Sustainable Mind - environment & sustainability podcast
Marjorie Alexander
4.6 • 588 Ratings
🗓️ 11 May 2019
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Samir Lakhani, 26, is a social entrepreneur dedicated to restoring health and dignity to developing countries through environmental initiatives. Prior to founding Eco-Soap Bank in 2014, Samir was deeply involved in climate-resilient aquaculture and nutrition projects in northern Cambodian villages. He has also developed solar lighting social enterprise projects in Cambodia, Bangladesh, and Nepal. Currently, he serves as the Founder & Executive Director of Eco-Soap Bank—a global soap-recycling organization—which operates in 10 countries in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. To date, Eco-Soap Bank has reached over 1.1 million people with recycled soap and free hygiene education. In 2017, Samir received a CNN Hero Award for his work with global hygiene.
In this episode we cover:
- How do you recycle soap in a sanitary way?
- How is soap that is not recycled impacting our environment?
- Where do you get the soap and who receives the recycled soap?
- How do you change the everyday habits of a community that is respectful of their history and traditions?
Key Takeaways:
- 5 million bars of soap are thrown away EACH DAY! And it's not biodegradable!
- Recruiting hygiene ambassadors that are of the local culture helps spread the message more effectively.
- When you have big ideas, don't wait for it to be perfect, launch it now! But also consider longevity.
- Get involved with Project EcoSoap - donate to the Kickstarter and help spread the word!
Samir Lakhani and Project Ecosoap Online:
- Project EcoSoap on Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/projectecosoap/project-ecosoap-zero-waste-big-impact\
- Project EcoSoap website: https://projectecosoap.org/
- Eco-Soap Bank: https://ecosoapbank.org/
- A fun video message from Samir about EcoSoap!
- Project EcoSoap on Social Media:
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/projectecosoap
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/projectecosoap
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/projectecosoap
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCObHCVqoIDGrpRR5mJfGl1A
Suggested Resources from Samir:
Suggested online resource:
-
YouTube! You can learn anything from how to build wind turbines to how to drive stick shift!
Books:
- Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is A Sustainable Mind, episode 64. |
| 0:03.8 | Today's episode features Samir Lakani, and Samir has an awesome project about recycled |
| 0:09.6 | soap. |
| 0:10.3 | But before we get into that, I wanted to give a big shout out and thank you to our ongoing |
| 0:15.7 | donors. |
| 0:16.9 | Elizabeth B. from Oak Park, Illinois. |
| 0:19.8 | Zane K. from Lakewood, Washington. Vincent A from Las Vegas, Nevada, and Jessica D from Topeka, Kansas. |
| 0:27.3 | Thank you all so much. If you are interested in supporting a Sustainable Mind podcast, we are now a 501C3 charitable organization, and your donation is tax deductible. |
| 0:45.3 | It goes towards the production of this show, upkeeping the website, editing the episodes, and keeping our podcast feed live. Thank you all so much. |
| 0:47.3 | Welcome to A Sustainable Mind, where we delve into the minds behind today's most impactful environmental campaigns, organizations, and startups, inspiring the environmental change makers of tomorrow. |
| 1:03.2 | I'm your host, Marjorie Alexander. |
| 1:20.1 | Samir Lakani, now 26, is a social entrepreneur dedicated to restoring health and dignity to developing countries through environmental initiatives. |
| 1:29.8 | Prior to founding Eco Soap Bank in 2014, Samir was deeply involved in climate resilient aquaculture and nutrition projects in northern Cambodian villages. |
| 1:36.8 | He has also developed solar lighting social enterprise projects in Cambodia, Bangladesh, and Nepal. |
| 1:44.0 | Currently, he serves as the founder and executive director of EcoSop Bank, a global soap recycling organization, which operates in 10 countries |
| 1:45.9 | in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Today, EcoSope has reached over 1.1 million people, |
| 1:53.2 | how freaking fantastic is that, with recycled soap and free hygiene education. In 2017, Samir received a |
| 2:00.4 | CNN Hero Award for his work in Global Hygiene. Welcome to the show, |
| 2:05.4 | Samir. How are you doing? I'm very well. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. I am super excited to get |
| 2:11.5 | into this project Eco Soap, which is a topic that I've been thinking about for a long time, but I've just never encountered |
| 2:19.2 | anyone that actually had an organization that did this type of work. So we'll get into that |
| 2:23.6 | in a little bit. But I wanted to start off with learning a little bit more about how sustainability |
... |
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