OFFICE COSTS - 24.02.2010

Blowing cash on the dryer

Green cleaning

Whether you’re having the current bathroom refurbished or not, there’s often debate surrounding paper towels versus electric dryers and which is greener. Getting an answer is tough because paper towel manufacturers and companies selling electric dryers both claim that their products are better for the environment. Yet, in analysing which is greener, you can also identify which is cheaper.

Tip. In the past, the paper towel was often viewed as the more hygienic option. However, there have been advances in technology: the latest dryers are fitted with a biological filter.

The paper towel

Let’s look at the paper towel first. In an office of 50 people, each using the toilet five times a day, you would need 500 towels every day, equating to some 10,000 every month and almost 120,000 a year (a very conservative estimate given that most people use more than the two towels per occasion used in this calculation). Environmentally, this doesn’t prove to be a very sound option: a conservative estimate using government conversion tables put the environmental cost of using hand towels over the year at around 750kg of carbon dioxide.

However this doesn’t consider the fact that they are: (1) usually not recyclable because they are used to dry hands etc. so are considered unsuitable; they are usually just thrown away (costing you money in landfill tax); (2) usually not made from recycled paper, so trees are being cut down in order to produce them; and (3) consumable items, meaning you have to keep producing, shipping and disposing of them - all of which produce carbon emissions.

The electric dryer

The most obvious environmental impact of an electric hand dryer is the amount of electricity it uses. The average hand dryer uses about 17.25 watts when in use, which equates to 855kg CO2 annually (based on 250 uses per day). They also use about 0.005kWh on standby. Assuming it isn’t switched off overnight then that equates to a further 43.8kg CO2. This is more than the hand towels, but when you consider the waste etc., the towels have 2.5 times the impact of the average heater over its lifetime (according to the Environmental Resources Management Group). But what about the financial cost?

What you’ll save

More electricity means higher energy bills too, so the first thing to do is check the energy use of the hand dryer. A Dyson Airblade, for instance, will use less than a quarter of the energy of a more conventional warm air dryer. However, the Dyson will set you back five times the cost. The Dyson Airblade will cost £600, whereas a warm air dryer can be just £100. The more the dryer is used the quicker the return on investment will be. Here’s an example of people using the dryer fives times per day.

* Based on two towels per use costing £14/5,000. ** Based on 261 working days.