Are hand dryers better than paper towels?

by | Jul 28, 2014 | Construction and Maintenance

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We are living at a time when everyone, business included is becoming extremely aware of the environmental challenges that the world is facing and many companies are looking for ways to reduce their environmental impact. This is all well and good but a company must also consider the need to save on operating costs at the same time. There are plenty of products available today which have been designed to reduce energy costs while also reducing the carbon footprint.

Many businesses need to provide public washrooms for their customers and employees, these businesses include restaurants, shopping malls, coffee shops, offices and many more. As they need to provide a public convenience the question arises, which is the best hand dryer? Although it is a simple matter, hand drying is a source of carbon emissions and contributes to the cost of energy. The dilemma becomes; what are more efficient, cost effective and environmentally sensitive, paper towels or the electric hand dryers as the means for customers and staff to dry their hands? As both have certain advantages and disadvantages and up until recently it was considered a close race between the two.

Up until recent innovations changed things, electric hand dryers had ineffective heating elements and low power motors, this meant that it took a considerably long time to completely dry the hands, the result was that more energy was consumed which produced higher carbon emissions. It seemed at the time that paper towels were more eco-friendly but this was not the case.

Although the use of paper towels uses no electricity at the point of use, it most certainly does during the paper making process. The production of paper towels also leads to deforestation and getting the paper to market also produces carbon emissions. Then there is the problem of disposing of used paper towels, they end up in a landfill which is an unsustainable solution.

Today there is no argument about which is the best hand dryer. New innovations in design and manufacturing electric hand dryers have resulted in hand dryers which are more powerful and more energy efficient than previous products, this makes the electric hand dryer the more economical option as well as a far more environmentally friendly option. Today, electric hand dryers use high speed motors that create high-velocity air flow; they use about 80 percent less electricity and instead of drying the hands in 45 seconds, they now can dry hands in less than 10 seconds.

The use of energy efficient hand dryers offer significant long term benefits over the use of paper towels making them the best hand dryer for business.

There is little doubt that the best hand dryer is the electric device. World Dryer has a complete portfolio of high speed, energy efficient hand dryers that are durable as well as stylish.

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