Hand dryers v paper towels
Life is full of choices. We have to make lots of decisions every day. Some decisions may have a huge impact on the direction of our lives, whereas others may be rather inconsequential. Some of these decisions may be just a matter of convenience, and the consequence of these actions may be minute. However, if we make a decision about something we do every day or more the consequence of these actions may be very great indeed.
OK, this post isn't really that deep. It's about a choice I have every day but still haven't come up with a satisfactory decision. In the toilets at work, should I use the paper towels to try my hands or the electric hand dryer?
The hand dryer is using electricity that has probably been created in a coal or oil fired power station. This will have belched out our carbon dioxide, a major contributor to global warming - the biggest threat to our planet. Along with that are pollutants such as sulphur dioxide which causes acid rain. The hand dryer is very inefficient and lots of heated air will have escaped into the building, which will probably be cooled down again by the air conditioning unit.
The paper towels on the other hand have been made from recycled paper. A no-brainer I thought. Go for the hand towels. But wait a minute. The paper had to be recycled in a factory that uses electricity. What happened to the chemicals used in the recycling process - were they washed into the sea? And then there's the transportation from the factory to my office - no doubt in a big diesel fuelled lorry that also contributes to global warming and acid rain. After the hand towel has been used it goes into a plastic bin bag that is transported somewhere else - hopefully the recycling plant but probably a landfill site somewhere.
So which of the above has least impact on the environment? Who knows? It would take a lot of serious scientific calculation to work out and differing usage could affect the results, i.e. do you use one or two paer towels; do you shake your hands thouroughly before using the dryer etc. Perhaps I should just give my hands a good shake and wipe them on my trousers.
caldini
3 Comments:
Yeah, I vote for trousers.
The great hand drying debate rages on. According to some study which I don't have time to locate right now, those now old fashioned self drying rotating cloth towels on a roller are the best, followed by air hand dryers and last and least paper towels which do not get recycled and end up wrapped in bin bags in landfill.
Of course wave, wipe on your bum and go is the best of all!
10/10
This is a pretty hard topic to debate on. If you’re worried about germs and hygiene…forget about the trousers. Haha.
In my opinion, hand dryers are better. First of, you save trees by not using the paper towels. According to the public rest rooms website, people, more specifically little kids, don’t just pull out 1 or 2 pieces of paper, but around 5 or 6. You don’t even need evidence to know that’s true. It’s tempting and addictive you know? Like some sort of new toy.
Convenience wise, paper towels work much faster than hand dryers - much better than your pants too. However, there is wastage of paper and paper towels do not clean your hands as thoroughly as hand dryers do. According to the publish rest rooms website, ‘Studies have shown that restroom automatic dryers inhibit the growth of bacteria on the skin by drying the skin more effectively than paper towels’. This is because even though paper towels seem to do a good job in drying your hands, there are many spots, such as between your fingers, that are often missed – good places for bacteria to grow. These spots can however, be reached by the hand dryer. So again, if you don’t want something funky growing on your hand, use the hand dryer!
Cost wise, (again according to the public rest rooms website) air dryers cost $500 to buy, versus paper towels which cost around $25 a box. Paper towels seem a lot cheaper when you look at the numbers now, but think about having to buy more than 30 boxes a year? Even more? Now that’s a lot.
Okay, I’ve blabbed enough. But if you want to know more about why I think hand dryers are the better option to paper towels, check out the website I’ve been quoting from:
http://publicrestrooms.lifetips.com/cat/64395/hand-dryers-vs-paper-towels/index.html
I say go for the hand dryer, but hey, the final choice is still yours! Hope this helped a little.
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