On paper towels vs. hand dryers

27 Mar 2003

Got questions about the environment? Ask Umbra.

Dear Umbra,

As an environmental science instructor, I'm often asked which is the better choice when drying one's hands in a public restroom, assuming both options are available: paper towels, with their associated disposal issues, or hand dryers, with their use of electricity, much of which is wasted. What's the answer?

Curious in Iowa,
Dawn

Ask Umbra continues below

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Dearest Dawn,

Patient multitudes have written repeatedly with the insistent query: "Hand Dryer or Paper Towels???" Who can sleep at night while this haunting question goes unresolved? The public restroom has become a place of agony and indecision for many Gristers, and I'm sorry that I've let it go on for so long. In celebration of spring, let's banish the anxiety that wet hands can bring.

But how did she dry her hands?

First, dear environmental science instructor, this question would be a great class project. Students could learn about solid waste, life cycles, and activism through working with your educational institution to measure waste and electrical outputs. That said, let me sketch out what I believe to be the most environmental visit to the public restroom. First, do not choose to use the disposable seat cover. Might as well flush, because if you don't the next person will. Wet your hands, turn off the water, soap up, and scrub; turn the water back on, rinse, turn off the water. Dry your hands with ... the blow dryer. (Yes, the scanty amount of research I could find indicated that hand dryers were better than paper towels, not only in terms of energy costs and solid waste, but in maintenance and janitorial costs as well.) As you exit, turn off the lights, leaving your comrades in the dark. Better to pee in the dark yourself, actually. Practice at home first.

For the record, all this sarcasm is not only to amuse myself and the two of you who have been amused, but also to remind us all that it doesn't matter very much whether you use the blow dryer or the paper towel. The impact of how you dry your hands is so small that you'd be far better off spending your time and energy on more important issues, and those where the environmental payoff is clearer -- such as converting the lighting in all those public restrooms to energy-efficient light fixtures (or convincing the powers that be to do the converting). If, however, you happen to be the manager of a building with lots of public restrooms, it would be worthwhile to investigate and install the newest, most efficient air dryers.

Dryly,
Umbra

Yours is to wonder why, hers is to answer (or try). Please send Umbra any nagging question pertaining to the environment -- but first check out her FAQs!

The claims made in this column may not reflect the views of this magazine. Neither the magazine nor the author guarantees that any advice contained in this column is wise or safe. Please use this column at your own risk.

Umbra Fisk is Grist Research Associate II, Hardcover and Periodicals Unit, floors 2B-4B.

Comments: (1 comment)

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Cecil Adams

The Straight Dope chimed in on this topic recently, also comes down on the side of hand dryers.

Enter Una and her spreadsheet to take an objective look. With everything she could think of accounted for (admittedly different assumptions might produce different results), Una's best guess is that standard hot-air dryers use 5 percent less energy than paper towels in the first year, and about 20 percent less over five years. If high-efficiency dryers like the Airblade really provided acceptable drying in ten seconds, then they'd use 80 percent less energy... Electric dryers might be better for the environment in other ways, too. Assuming the same five-year life span, Environmental Resources Management estimates paper towel production generates 35 percent more acid rain and 286 percent more greenhouse gas emissions... What about those reusable cloth towels mounted on a big roll? An EPA study found that continuous cloth towels, as they're known, have a low environmental impact, requiring only about 8 percent as much energy as paper towels and about 13 percent as much water (including what's needed for manufacturing and laundering).

On the other hand...

(a) it typically took 43 seconds [to dry hands] under a dryer to dry as well as 12 seconds with a paper towel, but (b) most dryer users lose patience well before then, and (c) about 40 percent end up wiping their hands on their pants.

I thought about that 40% remark when I was drying my hands under the jet-blast dryer installed at the US Green Building Council's restroom.

by Payton Chung at 1:33 PM on 18 Oct 2007

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Pee Ditty

On paper towels vs. hand dryers