Honey I Made a Mess Again Paper Towel
SAGE (Sound Advice for a Green Earth) is a project by avant-garde students in Globe Systems and other programs to answer sustainability questions.
Q: Does the amount of paper saved by electric manus dryers commencement the increased energy cost and use? What nearly considerations of hygiene and greenhouse gas emissions?
—Anonymous
The Essential Reply
When drying my hands in a public restroom, I always wonder: Should I trust those stickers that say the paw dryer in front of me is eco-friendly or catch a paper towel? Although we at SAGE washed our easily of this mess a while back, the constant pace of technology warrants an updated answer.
In general, air dryers use fewer resources than paper towels, since towels constantly need to be produced and transported to users, and somewhen take up space in the landfill. Even when compared with recycled paper towels that are composted (which are amend than those made from virgin materials and sent to the landfill), newer jet air dryers like those past Dyson and XLerator are more eco-friendly. When comparison the ecology impacts of recycled paper towels and older air dryers, it can be a bit of a toss-up, as older dryers require considerable energy and time to completely dry hands. Only, of the three options, the newer jet air dryers win hands downward, since they can take as little as 12 seconds to dry your hands with 30 percent less free energy than the one-time air dryers, leading to fewer carbon dioxide emissions even when compared with recycled towels.
Since the answer seems so simple, you may wonder why the bath paper towel industry exists at all. Some people prefer the speed of paper towels over older air dryers. And, to prevent spreading leaner, easily must exist completely dried after washing. As people don't always spend the entire 12-xxx seconds drying their hands with an air dryer, sensitive locations, like hospitals or commercial food preparation areas, typically recommend using paper towels. However, from a day-to-mean solar day hygiene standpoint, when not in a sensitive environment, air dryers get the task done.
To keep those paws clean and dry, here's a handy rule of thumb: Go for the newer jet air dryer when bachelor. If your but options are an older air dryer or paper towels, using a single newspaper towel is marginally better than an older dryer. And if you desire to really let your tree-hugging cocky out, all this paw-wringing tin be avoided with the historic period-former tradition of wiping your hands on your pants (or other make clean items of article of clothing). Now that's a solution that blows abroad all the other options!
Photo: Evan Blaser/Flickr
The Nitty-Gritty
The debate over paper towels vs. air dryers has reached hand-to-hand gainsay levels, with conflicting studies commissioned by both the paper towel and air dryer industries. There'southward a lot at stake: Paper towels command a $2.v billion industry and Americans use 270 1000000 copse' worth of them each year. While 1 written report commissioned past the European Tissue Commission (yeah, this is real) finds air dryers to be less hygienic than newspaper towels, the air dryer groups are quick to fight back.
Evaluations of environmental footprints can easily reach a multifariousness of conclusions based on the factors considered. For paper towels and air dryers, near studies consider the materials and energy used in industry, transportation to the end user, quantity of paper towels used, energy used by the air dryer and, in some cases, free energy required to dispose of the paper towels.
Environmental Factors
The most thorough assay of the air dryer/newspaper towel argue is an MIT study commissioned by Dyson, which finds that the newer air dryers have the everyman impact and the older air dryers the highest (with newspaper towels not far behind). This study is more credible than many others, equally outside parties examined the newspaper'southward assumptions and the researchers incorporated by papers' findings. The study delves into the nuanced differences between multiple types of towels, standard warm air dryers, the XLerator dryer and two versions of the Dyson Airblade. To try to encompass every environmental metric, the study looks at multiple sources of impacts (every bit seen in the nautical chart below) and three different scenarios (e.g., whether people actually use the drying systems until their hands are fully dry). With all this in mind, the Dyson and XLerator dryers are constitute to take the to the lowest degree bear upon more than than 98 percent of the fourth dimension, since paper towels require energy with every employ for their production, transportation and disposal—factors that air dryers do not require on a per-utilise basis.
Table: From Montalbo, Gregory, and Kirchain 2011.
Free energy
From an energy perspective, newspaper towels tend to exist more wasteful than electrical dryers, even when excluding the transportation of paper towels to and from restrooms. One analysis found that virgin paper towels use about three times more than energy than hot air dryers, or ten times more than XLerator dryers.
Newer dryers like Dyson or Xlerator provide a high-speed air stream that dries hands in only 12 to 15 seconds (most the same as the time it takes to dry your hands with a newspaper towel), as opposed to conventional dryers, which take thirty to 45 seconds. The XLerator dryer also uses less free energy per 2nd compared to older dryers. In comparison, paper towels require much more than energy to be produced (either from copse or recycling facilities), packed, shipped to their final destinations and disposed of after use.
Hygiene
In 2015, a report with ties to the European Tissue Commission (and critiqued for its unrealistic examination atmospheric condition) reignited the paper towel/air dryer hygiene fence, leading to headlines similar, "Bad News: The Dyson Airblade is Basically a Virus Catapult." However, a more reputable source tin be establish in a Mayo Dispensary review comparing the hygiene of paper towels to air dryers. The study concluded that hospitals and similar infection-decumbent areas should stick to newspaper towels, which requite less-thorough mitt washers ane last chance to get bacteria off their hands while reducing the take a chance of user mistake with air dryers (similar leaving the air dryer before hands are completely dry out). Only, newer air dryers are making strides in hygiene standards. Dyson air dryers were the start allowed for use in food preparation areas, paving the way for a future with fewer paper towels and more resource conservation.
If y'all intendance about hygiene, properly washing and fully drying your easily is more important than your drying technique. Some lucky Michigan Country University researchers camped out in bathrooms and discovered that a whopping 95 percent of users were washing their hands inadequately.
Decision
For both hygiene and the surroundings's sake, look out for those newer air dryer models and be certain to fully dry out your hands. If that's not an selection, effort to use fewer newspaper towels, or an older warm air dryer as last resort. And, if all else fails, there'south always that make clean pair of pants y'all're wearing. Whichever route you cull to follow, for anybody's sake, exist sure to properly wash and completely dry those paws!
Maria Deloso, 'xv, plans to receive her MS in Earth Systems in 2018. Edited by Virginia Fay , MA '17.
Source: https://stanfordmag.org/contents/paper-or-air-which-method-is-greener
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