Reflections on Ways to Dry Hands: Towel Papers
The paper has faced several rather fierce competitions in consumer preference over the emergence of alternative products. One of the most striking disputes, precisely because it is easily noticed in public toilets at airports, road stations, sports stadiums, shops, hospitals, shopping malls, hotels and restaurants is the way to dry hands after washing them. The options for doing this operation are as follows: paper towels, continuous cotton fabric towels, electric hot air dryers. However, rarely is the option given to the customer or public bathroom user. Who offers the system is exactly who puts the bathroom for the society's use, that is, the owner or manager of the commercial establishment.Bounty Select-a-Size Paper Towels, White, 8 Huge Rolls = 20 Regular Rolls
Any user of a public bathroom appreciates the hygiene, organization, lighting, odorization of the room and the availability of the supplies that he will need (soap, toilet paper, a means to dry his hands). He also does not like having to queue up, either to use the toilet, or to wash and dry his hands. After all, the environment is not recommended to stay there any longer than is strictly necessary.
Inappropriate toilet conditions cause discomfort and dissatisfaction to users. If they are customers of the commercial establishment transfer this dissatisfaction in the act of purchase. For this and other hygienic reasons, public toilets must always be kept clean and maintained. No user likes to see the wet and dirty floors, nor to find traces of paper (towel and toilet) strewn on the floor. As personal hygiene recommends that the hands be washed several times a day, if the client takes a bad impression of the bathroom, he will tend to reject having to go back to it. You can even change your shopping preferences or establishments.
On the other hand, the user likes to have comfort and articles that give him convenience, even if these conveniences are offered for free. He always has his home as a comparison. There, he has rarely installed a hot air system or a continuous towel towel to dry his hands. On the other hand, in almost all the kitchens of the Brazilian households there are for eventual use the paper towels. Therefore, the public toilet user already has certain empathy and acceptance by the towel in the form of paper. In his home-made bathroom, he is accustomed to fluffy, scented cloth towels, very different from what he finds in public toilets. However, he tends to accept what is offered to him, since it is an eventuality and not a routine one. For this reason, he rarely has his opinion heard by those who install public toilets.
When a public toilet user is asked about his preferred way to dry his hands, he responds vaguely and with different points of view. It all depends on your training and values, your convenience and your knowledge about different systems. An environmentalist, who does not want to spend scarce natural resources with such a simple act, would say that the best way to dry his hands would be to wipe the hands over his hair or the back of his pants: after all, the hand is already clean, and nothing will bring inconvenience to the hair and clothes. The vast majority prefer paper towels because they are versatile and absorbent. They allow you to wipe your face and mouth when you wash your face or brush your teeth. They also serve to clean the shoes or to remove some coarse dirt that has been installed on the clothes, utensils for personal use, etc. It is for this reason that when a public toilet user does not find the desired paper towels, he seeks to compensate for this shortage by using the toilet paper placed next to the toilets.
Rarely does a public bathroom user enjoy the hot air dryer. Although they recognize the environmental and economic value of it, their performance is not seen as efficient, quick or pleasurable. However, it is more often found in high-frequency bathrooms, such as at airports, cinemas and shopping malls. This is due to the advantages that these dryers offer in terms of reducing costs, inventory, spare parts and people work. In more sophisticated environments, such as restaurants and hospitals, the options are continuous cloth towels or paper towels of higher quality.
Electric hot air dryers require very little work from those who maintain the hygienic conditions of the bathrooms. They do not require paper or cloth replacements, they do not need stocks of these supplies - they only need an outlet and electricity available. However, their maintenance must be constant and spare parts in stock must be available. Its price is high, but by demanding low operating cost it has "pay back" quite fast. Therefore, the preference of the owners of commercial establishments where there are many users for the bathrooms. Its biggest pollution is the hot air addicted to the bathrooms, which can transfer germs into the hands of users. However, most people do not pay attention to this, even because they already consider that when entering the bathroom is already in a "addictive and dangerous environment." So if the bathroom offer the option of alcohol gel make use immediately after drying hands.
Continuous cloth towels are seen as impractical by users - they are difficult to handle and do not offer much cloth length for hygiene acts. As they are stored damp inside the dispensers, these soon tend to rust and contribute to a poor impression of the system. However, there are already more effective dispensers available. They are also more difficult to store and change after completion of use. Paper towels have a much easier replenishment. On the other hand, cloth towels are reusable after washing / drying, while the only destination of used paper towels is garbage. Sanitary paper does not enjoy the opportunity to be recycled because it is contaminated with germs and organic waste from users.
Either way, regardless of what type of hand drying is available, all have advantages and disadvantages. They also have their environmental impact, there is no doubt. For this reason, it is worth knowing these facts in greater depth. This is what we will do next:
Advantages and disadvantages of each type of hand dryers
Let's try to do this individually and not comparative, putting each system with its relevant aspects.
• Advantages of Cotton Fabric Towels
- are functional, hygienic, practical;
- are reusable after washing / drying;
- are durable;
- are effective in cost as they are not converted into waste.
• Disadvantages of cotton cloth towels
- need intensive washing and sterilizing drying;
- need packaging, storage, transportation, heavy handling.
• Advantages of paper towels
- are functional, hygienic, practical, flexible, convenient;
- are friends of the user;
- have high absorption capacity and speed for use;
- are effective in cleaning and drying, removing both the water and waste particles present in the hands.
• Disadvantages of paper towels
- are not recyclable, generating solid waste to be managed;
- require significant consumption of water, land, wood, chemical inputs and energy in papermaking;
- high total cost, even because users tend to use much more sheets than would be required (use 3 to 4 when they could use 1 or 2);
- they favor vandalism in bathrooms, since they are flammable and when damp they become pellets of mass that are thrown to stick in the ceiling, walls, etc .;
- need packaging, storage, transportation, heavy handling.
• Advantages of electric hot air dryers
- economical, practical, fast pay back;
- facilities for installation and use;
- absence of pollutants that can be noticed by users;
- low environmental impact, as indicated by several life cycle assessment studies.
• Disadvantages of electric hot air dryers
- do not fully meet the requirements of comfort and convenience of users;
- high power required (1,700 to 2,200 Watts in operation and 2 Watts in standby);
- high energy demand for each drying operation (between 0.020 to 0.040 kWh / operation);
- the emission of hot air increases the temperature of the toilets in the hot summers, increasing the discomfort in the bathrooms;
- suck up a stale air and transfer this air to the user's hands, even when they have antibacterial filtration;
- require stocks of spare parts and maintenance;
- do not work when there is no power;
- they have a slow drying time (usually takes 30 to 45 seconds), which creates queues in bathrooms with high frequency of use.
Environmental Aspects and LCA - Life Cycle Assessment
There are numerous comparative environmental studies among different types of hand dryers. In general, these studies are based on LCAs, which evaluate all environmental effects from the design of each product to its final destination, as they say in practice, "from crib to grave."
Unfortunately, LCAs are very sensitive to the local conditions where the studies are done, as well as the hypotheses considered. They may vary in their conclusions according to the type of energy (renewable or fossil source) used in the manufacture or operation of the product, or the amount of paper towels the user consumes, or in the way of washing the towels. the paper is made from certified virgin fibers or recycled secondary fibers. Finally, each case is a case, but there are more general and general, not so specific, considerations that we will try to report to them as a contribution to increase the stock of knowledge. Those interested in learning more can look for some of these studies in the literature, or even try to build a specific stroke for their situation.
All three types of ways to dry hands have effects and affect the environment and ecosystems. Everything that is anthropic and frequent ends up having its environmental impact - we already know well about the impacts of humanity on the natural resources.
In the LCA's are evaluated:
• Quantity of greenhouse gases generated in manufacturing and operation;
• Contribution to acidification and nutrient enrichment of soils and waters;
• Quantities released from air, water and solid waste pollutants;
• Consumption of energy, water and other inputs - cumulative throughout the life cycle;
• Photochemical ozone generation potential;
• Potential for recycling and reuse;
• Need for packaging, handling, transportation and replacements;
• Need for manual labor;
• Socio-environmental effects throughout the cycle and after the end of use ("death of the product");
• Economic impacts as part of sustainability studies;
• Impacts on the quality of ecosystems.
In almost all the available studies, the environmental and economic advantages of electric air dryers are highlighted in relation to the other two models of drying. Its advantages are mainly due to the non-generation of waste, simplicity in operations and operational cost, requiring minimum inputs for its operation. The manufacturers and sellers of this type of dryers value this fact very much and act aggressively in the markets, trying to increase their "market share".
Cloth towels, because they are reusable and durable, also end up having advantages over paper towels.
On the other hand, paper towels, whether produced from certified virgin fibers or from recycled fibers, are more impaired in this assessment because they are discarded after use and because they have a manufacturing process that demands significant amounts of energy ( steam and electricity), water and chemical inputs.
Final considerations
Paper towel manufacturers are unlikely to be able to reverse the conclusions of comparative life cycle assessments between these systems, even more so in a country such as Brazil, where the energy matrix relies on hydroelectricity, thermoelectricity from renewable biomass and more recently on energy wind.
However, the paper towel has the sympathy and preference of most users, which could lead the papermaking industry to promote the use of alternative and integrated systems. It would mean that two options were available in the same public bathroom: one towel and one hot-air drying. This would put the user in the position of being able to choose, to run away from queues and to have alternatives to dry their hands when they lack power.
Other lines of work that could be promoted by the paper industry would be:
• Awareness of citizens to use fewer towels in each act of drying;
• The use of some percentage of recycled fibers in the towel paper revenue and value this fact as an industry that practices recycling;
• The improvement of the quality of the towels, giving them greater resistance when they become dampened in the act of picking up the leaf in the dispenser to withdraw the same (many dissolve in the hands by the very resistance that they have);
• Improve the quality of the leaf separator pick and adjust the leaf dispensers so that they are easier to release individually;
• Promote the virtues and image of paper, which is a renewable product manufactured by an industry that is committed to the practice of sustainability.
Anyway, alternatives exist, the worst of them would be the confrontation and the criticisms without bases to the other alternative systems of drying of hands. Even the most fervent papermakers also wash and dry their hands and know the virtues and drawbacks of their products. Let us therefore value our advantages and work hard to minimize the disadvantages. At the same time, we must show our gratitude to the millions of users who appreciate and love paper as a means of drying hands, offering them advantages in the quality of paper products, in their prices and in the awareness of how best to use paper, this good unique that man was able to create.