Paper Towels Vs. Hand Dryer: Which Is More Effective?

There is an ongoing a mainly unanswered debate in the world of facilities which addresses the issue of which hand drying methods are most effective. Effectiveness, when it comes to drying hands is measured in several different ways: environmental impact and energy use, cost and also the hygiene factor. All businesses that require a bathroom in their premises have bathrooms for the staff and customers, so hand drying efficiency debates are relevant to all industries.

Below we look at the two hand-drying products that Glove Club stock, disposable paper towels and hand dryers and come up with our own conclusions about which methods are best judging by the above criteria.

 Environmental Impact

In 2011 the technology innovation company Dyson commissioned a study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to discover which out of a selection of drying methods had the smallest impact on the environment. Researchers at the systems laboratory conducted lifecycle assessments on dryers including the Dyson Airblade, standard warm air dryers, cotton towels, and recycled and brand new hand towels. According to the report hand dryers scored worst for energy consumption and environmental impact but paper towels had a bad scoring for ecosystem impact due to trees used, and actually in order to produce them it used slightly more energy than the hand dryer, which is a one-off production, whereas hand towels have to be constantly replaced. In terms of Carbon foot print paper towels emit less carbon per towel compared to a use of a hand dryer because it takes a lot of energy to heat the dryer air.

Hand Dryer 1: 1 Paper Towels

Price

The cost of running a hand dryer and buying paper towels is quite tough to weigh up and will depend on the business in question. It depends on factors such as how often the bathroom is used and how many paper towels on average your staff or customers use. It is likely that using paper towels adds up to more per month due to the need for ongoing supplies whereas buying and installing a hand dryer are two one-off costs. An article posted on Chron.com estimates that a hand dryer uses 0.03 kwh of electricity per use and averages out at about $14.58 per month for electricity costs. The hand towels incur an initial cost of £13.99 for a hand towel dispenser and on top of this you have to buy packs of paper towels. Using paper towels involves small but continuous purchases of packs of hand towels and additional maintenance accessories such as bins and bin bags.

Hand dryer 1: 0 Paper towels

 Hygiene

A study published by the Mayo Clinic in June last year found that paper towels are far more hygienic than their electric air-blowing counterparts. Keith Redway, a senior academic in Microbiology and Molecular Biology at Westminster University found that the germs in the air of toilets harbour inside the nozzle of a hand dryer where they can grow easily because they are at an optimum temperature and then these are blown back at you. Another factor is that paper towels dry hands quicker than dryers so that more water and germs are removed: Dr Cunrui Huang found that hands are 96% dry after ten seconds of using a paper towel and the friction caused by rubbing removes 54% of germs.

Hand dryer 0 : 1 Paper towels

 The reason that all hand drying methods are still used by industries is because they are all effective in their own way. Hand dryers use more energy but have a smaller environmental impact and paper towels are quite pricey on the long term but they dry hands hygienically. Paper towels are best used in businesses where hygiene is paramount such as doctors, hospitality and food industries.