{"id":2847,"date":"2008-03-27T09:10:58","date_gmt":"2008-03-27T15:10:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-367309-1145705.cloudwaysapps.com\/2008\/03\/27\/paper-or-hot-air-bring-your-own-hand-towel\/"},"modified":"2008-03-27T09:10:58","modified_gmt":"2008-03-27T15:10:58","slug":"paper-or-hot-air-bring-your-own-hand-towel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/paper-or-hot-air-bring-your-own-hand-towel\/","title":{"rendered":"Paper or Hot Air? Bring Your Own Hand Towel"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"greenhand.jpg\"Editor’s note: No, not paper or plastic… we’ve been there<\/a>. David Shaw takes a look at the environmental impact of hand-washing, and finds there’s a better way… even better than “Press button. Rub hands under warm air. Wipe hands on pants.” David originally published<\/a> this post to Professor Simran Sethi’s Media and the Environment course blog<\/a> on Wednesday, March 5, 2008.<\/em><\/p>\n

I drink at least a liter of water a day, which means I end up using the restroom at least five times a day. In the bathroom at work, we have the fairly standard stack of single sheet paper towels that you pull from the holder one at a time (although sometimes a clump comes out, if they\u2019re packed too tightly). It takes two paper towels to dry my hands thoroughly.<\/p>\n

So, on a daily basis I use at least 10 paper towels, or 50 paper towels a week, or 200 paper towels a month, or 2,400 paper towels a year<\/strong>! That is a lot of paper. But, I have to wash my hands and I have to dry them. Yet, every time I grab the paper towels, I feel a tinge of guilt. So, I started trying to find ways to conserve paper towels.<\/p>\n

First, I decided to cut down to just one paper towel. Yeah, my hands were still a little damp when I left the restroom, but they air dried within a minute or two. Still, with one paper towel per hand washing, I was using at least 1,200 paper towels a year. Not good enough.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Hand Towels… The Greenest Option<\/h2>\n

This has been bugging me for a while. Finally, one day I had an epiphany. If I were to use one of those quick drying microfiber towels that hikers and campers use, I could just keep that in my pocket and use it to dry my hands anywhere I go. AND they are made with some sort of anti-microbial\/germ fighting thing that helps prevent them from getting getting germy and stinky.<\/p>\n

I know that it takes more resources and energy to make one quick-dry towel than it takes to make one paper towel, but I’m not so sure the same holds true vs. 2,400 paper towels – especially when you consider the paper towels are virgin paper. My guess is I can get at least a couple years use out of the microfiber towel. Weighing that against nearly 5,000 paper towels I might use over two years, and it’s a no-brainer — microfiber towel wins!<\/p>\n

So, I am going to start pushing a new mantra that’s similar to the bring your own shopping bag slogan that is starting to catch on. Bring your own hand towel. If you are wondering whether using a paper towel or a hot air hand dryer is the better choice, the best choice is neither — bring your own hand towel!<\/p>\n

I was at a sporting goods store with my wife’s parents over the weekend and I found a small microfiber hand towel that even comes in its own cute little nylon pouch. I bought one as a gift for my wife’s birthday in May and I asked her to get me one for mine, which is later this month.<\/p>\n

I will reduce my carbon footprint even more with this little towel. And I’ll save some trees, too!<\/p>\n

Turns out there’s a company based on this concept: People Towels<\/a>. And, of course, we’ve got numerous organic hand towels<\/a> listed in our product comparison engine.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor’s note: No, not paper or plastic… we’ve been there. David Shaw takes a look at the environmental impact of hand-washing, and finds there’s a better way… even better than [ … ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":17466,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,79,13],"tags":[525,526,58,527],"yoast_head":"\nHand Towels: the Reusable Option<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"No need to decide between paper towels or a hot air dryer when washing up... hand towels are easy to carry and reusable.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/paper-or-hot-air-bring-your-own-hand-towel\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hand Towels: the Reusable Option\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"No need to decide between paper towels or a hot air dryer when washing up... hand towels are easy to carry and reusable.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/paper-or-hot-air-bring-your-own-hand-towel\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sustainablog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-03-27T15:10:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/greenhand.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"250\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"347\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeff McIntire-Strasburg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeff McIntire-Strasburg\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/paper-or-hot-air-bring-your-own-hand-towel\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/paper-or-hot-air-bring-your-own-hand-towel\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jeff McIntire-Strasburg\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/9b578e764fdaeb0c31f2d565d3f02b30\"},\"headline\":\"Paper or Hot Air? 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