A DOCTORATE student proved to be clean ahead of fellow nominees after his soap business for disadvantaged people gained an award.

Sebastian Huempfer, 26, who is studying economic history at Green Templeton College, began Clean Sl8 (pronounced Clean Slate) in January last year.

He started the social enterprise to turn old soap into new, and is the first person in Oxfordshire to win a Prime Minister’s Point of Light award.

His initiative uses lightly-used soap from seven Oxford hotels and recycles it into new soap bars. They are then given to local charities, homeless shelters and disaster relief agencies.

Prime Minister and Witney MP David Cameron said: “Sebastian’s idea is simple but brilliant and is making a real difference to charities and his local community.

“I’m impressed that having already produced 500 new bars of soap for disaster relief agencies and charities such as UNICEF, Sebastian now plans to expand Clean Sl8 further. He thoroughly deserves this Point of Light award.”

Mr Huempfer is the 105th winner of the award, which has been given out every weekday since April this year in recognition of exemplary volunteers.

It is based on the Points of Light programme in the US, set up by President George W. Bush and continued by President Barack Obama.

Clean Sl8 received its first batch of used soap in May last year and produced 500 new bars over the first year in the pilot stage.

The process involves “cleaning the soap by removing the outer layer from the bars, sanitising it under UV light, grinding it into powder, pressing the power into bars, repackaging,” said Mr Huempfer, who grew up near Munich, Germany, and came to Britain aged 20 to study Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford.

The project was originally staffed by about 25 volunteers, mostly students, from Oxford, and London, and scientific advisors from Imperial College. However, Clean Sl8 is now being run mostly by residents at the Ley Community, based in Yarnton, which helps former offenders and homeless people overcome alcohol and drug abuse and re-enter the workforce.

“Once the Ley Community is fully up and running, they will have a capacity of about 500 bars a month,” he said. “We want every hotel in the UK that uses bars of soap, eventually. Twenty by the end of the year would be good. The next stage will be identifying other charities that want to start soap recycling in their area, and we’ll help them find hotel partners.”

Mr Huempfer, who divides his time between Oxford and London, is researching US trade policy for his thesis and is currently in the US doing archival research about what US business elites thought about foreign trade and the establishment of the common market in Europe in the 1950s and early 1960s.

More information about the award

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