Barely using a mini bar of hotel soap can feel wasteful, especially when a mountain of bars are discarded every day.

But a new program in the Downtown Eastside hopes to reduce that waste by employing women who need entry-level work to recycle soap to send to developing countries. According to Clean the World, a U.S.-based non-profit that oversees the program, many people, mostly children, in the developing world die from acute respiratory infections and diarrheal disease that could be prevented by providing soap to wash their hands and prevent the spread of infection.

Grace Edge, a recovering alcoholic who hasn't held a full-time job for decades, has participated in Mission Possible's new recycling program since it started last month. "To give back to somebody else means everything to me," she said.

Every Monday, six women who live in the Downtown Eastside, some who battle drug and alcohol addiction, have lived on the street and cope with mental illness, transform into recycling technicians from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. They set up stations, don gloves and lab coats, scrub visible debris from bars of soap, sanitize the tablets with bleach and water, and dry, repackage and pack the soap. World Vision in the U.S., through its partnership with Clean the World, sends the soap to locations including India, Mongolia, Haiti and Africa.

The technicians also sterilize bottled toiletries that are distributed to local charities.

The women clear $8 an hour. Mission Possible charges the nine hotels and bed and breakfasts involved in the program a dollar a room for a total of 1,500 rooms. The Century Plaza Hotel and Spa and the Nelson House B&B are the only local businesses participating so far. Clean the World has given Mission Possible a licence to recycle soap from B.C. to Manitoba.

Linwood House Ministries, which provides support to women in the Downtown Eastside and provides a respite for them on the Sunshine Coast, recruits and supports the women participating in the program.

Edge says Linwood House Ministries has helped her for more than six years. After painful years of abuse and addiction, the 49-year-old says her life is just beginning with her recent graduation from cooking school and a move from a shoddy hotel to the Salvation Army's Grace Mansion, just two blocks away from the new job she loves.

Brian Postlewait, executive director of the Christian humanitarian agency that is Mission Possible, said the amount of bleach used to clean the soap is miniscule. He wasn't sure of the environmental costs of transporting the soap around the world.

But he's certain the work that contributes to saving the lives of others gives participating women a sense of purpose and dignity.

"There's something powerful in being able to serve," Postlewait said.

He said 75 per cent of the 10,000 people who live in Downtown Eastside hotels and supportive housing are unemployed and half of them are willing and able to work in flexible employment. He hopes more hotels will sign on to allow Mission Possible to employ two dozen women.

crossi@vancourier.com