So I was thinking today as I washed my hands in the office toilet block and being confronted with two options one being to have a electric hot air blower to dry my hands or the use of paper towel.

What is more environmentally friendly?

The hand dryer I'd imagine chews through the juice hardcore whilst with the paper towel there is the manufracturing of the paper itself and the waste it generates.

Does anyone know for sure or have an opinion on this?

A quick google search brings up some interesting finds

I googled "hand dryer versus paper towel" without the quotations and opened the link below however there were a few others that looked like reliable enough sites.

http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/7-31-2006-104024.asp

The impact of how you dry your hands is so small that you'd be far better off spending your time and energy on more important issues, and those where the environmental payoff is clearer -- such as converting the lighting in all those public restrooms to energy-efficient light fixtures (or convincing the powers that be to do the converting). If, however, you happen to be the manager of a building with lots of public restrooms, it would be worthwhile to investigate and install the newest, most efficient air dryers.

Source: http://www.grist.org/advice/ask/2003/03/27/umbra-towels/

You have to worry about the health of a forum when the mod's have no-one to talk to but themselves. :D

In this case, bugger the environment, paper towels hands down either way. I'm not touching any hand dryer, when I know there's a good chance some dirty fuck with cock-rot has touched the start button without using soap, instead relying on the 'magical' cleaning properties of tap water. And all because the tattoed piece of genetic bilge that passes for the bar manager, is too cheap to install the modern automatic hand dryers.

And don't even get me started on having to grab a big wad of non-recycled toilet paper, just to open the cock-sweat smeared door handle without risking finding someone elses oily, crab-laden, pube on my fucking hand, just as I reach out to pick up my pint when I've sat back down.

Humans. Dirty fuckers.

You have to worry about the health of a forum when the mod's have no-one to talk to but themselves. :D

In this case, bugger the environment, paper towels hands down either way. I'm not touching any hand dryer, when I know there's a good chance some dirty fuck with cock-rot has touched the start button without using soap, instead relying on the 'magical' cleaning properties of tap water. And all because the tattoed piece of genetic bilge that passes for the bar manager, is too cheap to install the modern automatic hand dryers.

And don't even get me started on having to grab a big wad of non-recycled toilet paper, just to open the cock-sweat smeared door handle without risking finding someone elses oily, crab-laden, pube on my fucking hand, just as I reach out to pick up my pint when I've sat back down.

Humans. Dirty fuckers.
Wow, I thought I freaked out about touching things. But you got me beat there.

I would guess paper towel. Just rip off about half of one and use every last bit of it as much as possible. Once you get the beads of water off, the residual water dries pretty quick. I use my non-dominant hand's pinky to open the doors of gross bathrooms.

What I do after washing my hands is just walk over to the nearest abandoned restroom corner and shake my hands all over the place like a tard having a tantrum. Then I take my open hands and do a quick "boob-plant" which leaves my palms dry and funny wet hand marks over my tits, like swamp thing just felt me up or something.

The towel may be more sanitary due to the fact that as a janitor I have seen a lot of abuse to the public mens rooms.The ellectric hand dryer is one of the few items that looks clean with a quick swipe of a windex soaked rag.

to the person who said the you shouldnt worry about using the hand dryer.
here's some sample data:
typical dryer power usage 1600Watts, so if you dry hands for 10 seconds thats
1600 divided by 3600seconds(in an hour)
=0.44x10(seconds)
=4.44Watts per lunch break or whatever:
=3 times per dayx 4.44watts, =
13.32watts
then 230 approximate working days per year thats 3063watts,
then say 30 years of work, thats 90 killowatts

according to nuclearinfo.net/Nuclearpower/WebHomeEnergyLifecycleOfNuclear_Power
1kw is 0.467 grams of coal

so 0.467 gramsx90 = 24grams of coal.

then times that by a random number of people using hand dryers like say 100 million
thats already 4300 tons of coal that could have been saved.

when you compare the coal used to wood pulp for paper towels, it is more attractive, (exponentially).

but the best option is to dry your hands on your trousers :)

The towel may be more sanitary due to the fact that as a janitor I have seen a lot of abuse to the public mens rooms.The ellectric hand dryer is one of the few items that looks clean with a quick swipe of a windex soaked rag.

So true. I once started to use a hand dryer only to be surprised when brown clods spewed out onto my hands and a fowl smell filled the air. Apparently someone had been kind enough to pack shit into the outlet. :mad: Since then I always let someone else use it first or look inside before turning it on.

So true. I once started to use a hand dryer only to be surprised when brown clods spewed out onto my hands and a fowl smell filled the air. Apparently someone had been kind enough to pack shit into the outlet. :mad: Since then I always let someone else use it first or look inside before turning it on.

That is fucked up on so many levels.

That is fucked up on so many levels.

Fucked up.....or hilarious?

Fucked up.....or hilarious?

Fucked up. I'd go insane if it were me.

You have to worry about the health of a forum when the mod's have no-one to talk to but themselves. :D

In this case, bugger the environment, paper towels hands down either way. I'm not touching any hand dryer, when I know there's a good chance some dirty fuck with cock-rot has touched the start button without using soap, instead relying on the 'magical' cleaning properties of tap water. And all because the tattoed piece of genetic bilge that passes for the bar manager, is too cheap to install the modern automatic hand dryers.

And don't even get me started on having to grab a big wad of non-recycled toilet paper, just to open the cock-sweat smeared door handle without risking finding someone elses oily, crab-laden, pube on my fucking hand, just as I reach out to pick up my pint when I've sat back down.

Humans. Dirty fuckers.

You made my fucking day, Good Job

Whatever works.