Hand Dryer vs Paper Towel

Hand Dryer vs Paper Towel Hand Dryer vs Paper Towel
What's the best way to dry your hand? The paper towel or hand dryer? This has been a huge debate for a long time

already. Now, let's go through this question in three perspectives - hygiene, price and carbon footprint.

First, study shows that after washing hands with non-alcoholic soap and then drying with a warm air dryer, only 9% of bacteria remained, but 20% remained when drying with cloth and 13% with paper. Clearly, among these methods, the dryer is the most hygienic way. Yet, touch free dryer can futures reduce the chance of bacteria transferring to you. Also, study also shows that bacteria are found in unused papers towels, especially those recycled ones since they are made with mixed materials.

Second, when it comes to price, people always think that paper towel is cheaper than hand dryers at the first glance. But, that is totally wrong. Because buying a dryer is a onetime cost, however, paper towel requires endless repurchasing process plus the labor cost for changing paper when they are out and the maintenance/stocking cost. Let's say that the average usage of a public bathroom is 200 people per day, then, paper towel will cost $2.4 while high speed hand dryer will only cost less than 8 cent. (Based on the average price of a tissue is 0.6 cent and people use two tissues to dry their hand while the electricity cost 10.2 cent for 1KWh) By using high speed hand dryers, you can save about $850, which means that the breakeven time for buying a hand dryer is within a year.
Hand Dryer vs Paper Towel Hand Dryer vs Paper Towel Hand Dryer vs Paper Towel

Finally, carbon footprint/energy consumption. Do you know that in order to produce one ton of paper towel, 3.5 tons of wood is needed? And, the pulping production may cause a mixture of chlorine and other chemicals (depending on the bleaching materials used) which then turn into toxic chemicals. These chemicals could cause skin cancer and even affect immune system. Besides, paper towels can NOT be recycled. It is one time use only. This explains why 40% off trash in US land filed contains paper products. On the other hand, hand dryer keeps improving and is being more and more energy efficient now. Traditional dryers use about 2200 watts but high speed dryers use an average of 1300 watts only.
Hand Dryer vs Paper Towel Hand Dryer vs Paper Towel Hand Dryer vs Paper Towel

From the above three perspectives, we can see that hand dryer is the winning method for drying hands. Even though people in America are used to paper towels, in Europe and Japan, you can barely see any paper dispensers in restrooms because hand dryer is a greener and more cost efficient way to dry hands. And I think it's our time to make this change from paper to dryers to not only benefit our health but our mother earth.

Hand Dryer vs Paper Towel Hand Dryer vs Paper Towel Hand Dryer vs Paper Towel 
Source:EzineArticles.com/7577422