Hand Dryers vs Paper Towels: Which is more eco-friendly?
I remember being in the restroom a year ago, whipping a few paper towels to bring home after using the hand dryer. As someone who cares for the environment, I suddenly had a thought: which is actually more eco-friendly? Hand dryers or paper towels? Naturally, I fished my phone out of my pocket to search for the answer. Unfortunately, it only gave me mixed answers, some agreeing with the other while others are doing otherwise.
And of course, drying the hand is as important as washing it. Hands are more prone to bacteria when it’s wet. To be able to see which one is actually better, I will now share to you the pros and cons of using paper towels or hand dryers.
Let’s take a look deeper into the effects of paper towels and hand dryers to the environment. Time to determine which is more eco-friendly!
Paper Towels: The pros and cons
Most people often assume that paper towels are eco-friendly since it is paper. However, the topmost problem with using paper towels would be where they go after use. It is important to ensure that it is ending in a proper place to be called eco-friendly. Regrettably, most of them go to landfill, where methane, a kind of greenhouse gas, is produced during decomposition.
Additionally, the process of converting the trees into paper towels, including transportation, consumes a lot of fossil fuels. Also, while creating the paper towels, the process sometimes emits harmful pollutants into nearby water sources. On the brighter side, it is an eco-friendly factor that paper towels don’t need electricity to be used.
On top of that, even though some paper towels are made from recycled paper, they, of course, cannot be recycled. However, some of them were made from softwoods, where four new trees are planted for each felled one.
Conclusion: Paper towels are eco-friendly if disposed of properly. Additionally, if they are made from recycled papers and softwoods, they also become safe for the environment. However, since the demand is becoming higher and higher, the means to create paper towels are also becoming less and less safe.
Hand Dryers: The pros and cons
Unless your hand dryer is consuming solar energy, the biggest con for this would be the fact that it is consuming electricity. Depending on the model, one use of a hand dryer will produce emissions of around 20 to 80 grams of carbon dioxide equivalent.
However, most modern hand dryers consume less energy than the old ones had before. They are energy-efficient and don’t have the element of heat. In fact, most of the newest ones use less energy than a lightbulb.
Lastly, hand dryers need only to be replaced usually close to after 10 years of use. This means that they are not produced in huge numbers, causing for them to produce fewer emissions.
Conclusion: Hand dryers are more eco-friendly in the long run. Since they don’t need to be replaced more often, they also don’t need to be produced as often. Given that modern hand dryers use less energy, it is safe to say that hand dryers are actually less harmful to the environment.
Who won, then?
Both paper towels and hand dryers are harmful to the environment in their own ways, to be fair. However, we can control the extent of harm they can bring to the Earth. We can dispose of paper towels properly. It is also important that we control our use of it. We should never overuse paper towels so that there won’t be a need to overproduce them as well. On the other hand (pun intended), hand dryers are also eco-friendly if not overused. Since we don’t need to replace it every once in a while, it is important to take good care of it. Additionally, if we can replace our old hand dryers with modern ones, it would be great. Even more, if we can produce a solar-powered one, that would be best!
Or… why don’t we just use hand towels? Isn’t that more eco-friendly?
How about you? Which one do you use more? Paper Towels or Hand Dryers? Do you sometimes consider which is more eco-friendly? Let us know!
