Cleanup Landmine Soap

From a senior thesis project aimed at pairing an innovative design with a non-profit organization, born was Cleanup Landmine Soap by Parsons graduate Hideaki Matsui. Making a big statement for a little bar of landmine shaped soap, the design is no mistake. Cleanup soaps are sold to raise money to support landmine removal, survivor assistance and The Cambodia Landmine Museum.

Growing up with exposure to images of landmine devastation, Hideaki found partnering with a non-profit that campaigned against landmines a first choice. From here developed a soap with a poetic metaphor for landmine removal – “as the soap disappears, so do the landmines.” Through the use of Cleanup soap people are participating in a fight against landmines with a simple step they do every day. The packaging and removal of the soap is another metaphor for the de-mining process. The packaging is designed to inform of the landmine problem and further directs the customer to de-mining activities throughout the world.

The landmine crisis is humanitarian and economic. Landmines not only maim or kill the innocent, they also prevent local populations from farming their own land for food and building basic infrastructure. Landmines are also easy to make but difficult to remove. Costing only $3 to make, removing one landmine can cost from $100 to $1,000. It is estimated 100 million landmines litter the earth to date, and at the current rate of removal it will take 1,000 years to clear all mines and unexploded ordinance.

In 2006 Cleanup, as a senior thesis project, was chosen for development through Milano The New School for Management and Urban Policy’s class entitled Social Entrepreneurship Through Design. Upon completion, two Milano students incorporated as the Social Entrepreneurship Network, Inc. (SEN). They now bring Cleanup and other civic-minded products to the market.

Purchase Cleanup Landmine Soap