Started/In Progress

Cost Benefit of Paper Towels vs. Hand Dryers

3 years ago in Innovative Ideas / Environmental Impact • updated by 3 years ago • 1

Paper towels are used to dry our hands and open bathroom doors around City Hall. A lot of paper towels are being used daily to open doors (which can be seen in a blue bin next to Public Works) and can also be found in urinals for some random reason. However, this was resolved with a blue bin next to the urinal.

The fact that people typically use at least two towels to dry their hands combined with the likelihood of pull out extra towels to open a the bathroom door and discard them can significantly increase the number of towels used. Towels must also be bagged and removed from the restroom on a regular basis, and any that have landed on the floor must be cleaned up.

Why not resolve it with a hand dryer and a "no touch door foot pull & commercial touchless door opener" tool for the two set of doors in the bathroom?

Benefits:

A hand dryer costs considerably more than a paper towel dispenser to purchase and install; a small business can purchase a dryer from various sources for about $450 to $500. The cost of operation will depend on the dryer’s efficiency plus the cost per kilowatt-hour of electricity in your area. A typical electric hand dryer uses about 0.03 kwh of electricity per use. At an average U.S. cost of $0.0995 per kwh, the cost for using an electric dryer averages out to about $14.58 per month, a savings of more than $60 per month over using paper towels. This means the higher cost of purchasing the electric dryer is repaid within about seven months, making an electric hand dryer a far more economical choice than paper towels.

Roll Out:

The problem area is the 2nd floor employee bathrooms. Install an air dryer/commercial touchless door opener tool for both bathrooms (first door and second door).

If the air dryer option is not financially feasible, I recommend installing the touchless door opener which minimizes paper towel use.

See the following link: https://www.amazon.com/StepNpull-Hands-Opener-Gold-1-Piece/dp/B004PZZYGG/ref=asc_df_B004PZZYGG/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=198055620944&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=9755686869200801894&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9032437&hvtargid=pla-348730356899&psc=1

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Started/In Progress

3 years ago

Thanks for submitting this idea. It has been reviewed with Facilities staff and foot pulls will be installed at the bathroom doors to provide an option for users.

Unfortunately, changing to air dryers is not a viable solution at this time. Each dryer location would require a new electrical run and the locations may require physical modification to the restroom to ensure ADA compliance. Additionally, some studies have shown that dryers promote the distribution of airborne particles.

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