paper towel or hand-drier...

[gavintc]

Believe it or not, there was a Life Cycle Assessment done on this very issue, but I'm afraid I can't find the link. I do remember that it concluded that hot air dryers were better in terms of the total energy consumed. What the report didn't say though was that hot air dryers don't actually work, leaving you to finish drying your hands on your trousers.

That said the new Dyson ones are brilliant.

I am completely in agreement - the dyson ones are excellent. An innovative solution to a simple problem.

 

[bonj2]

Try a Dyson Bonjy (your nearest Nandos). You'll never go back to a normal hand drier.

Yeah right. I'll suggest it, but this is in an office where the door frame of the shitter is coming off the cubicle wall at the bottom and is held on by a phone cable strapped round it with a screwdriver wedged in and twisted round to tighten it. So I can really see a Posh Dyson Hand dryer being likely.

 

[mickle]

Option 4; use the curtains.

 

[Abitrary]

I think there is more to this. I'm pretty sure most people walk rather than wash... unless there is someone else in the bog, just so they can look vainly clean.

If the handwashing facilities where always in a separate single ante-chamber airlock type thing, then there wouldn't be the same stigma about having to wash your hands to look all popular and hygenic on front of strangers.

 

[Jacomus-rides-Gen]

Who washes thier hands before they go?? Hygene dictates that we should wash our hands after we touch ourselves, but it isn't really hygene, its social manipulation.

For years and still now people are told that sex is bad, nakedness is bad, they are both dirty things to be done out of necessity. This is just not true. So strongly reinforced is this archaic view that men are afraid of touching other men in case they appear gay, people are told that their bodys are unhygenic, and must be covered up, obsessively cleaned and only allowed out if conventionally attractive, whence they are placed upon a pedastal.

Truth is - you have more bacteria on your hands than nestling between your legs. So if you want to be hygenic you should wash your hands before you go to the toilet, and afterwards out of courtesy, but not necessity.

 

[Abitrary]

For years and still now people are told that sex is bad, nakedness is bad, they are both dirty things to be done out of necessity.

AA Gill was talking about this sort of thing in the times this weekend. This quote is flippant, but the rest of the bit about why women should have get used to being naked is interesting:

"Everybody has a modesty zone, and people who tell you that being naked is somehow natural, and the default setting of nonsexual human interaction, are nonconformist vegans, German or properly hideous."

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article3365442.ece

 

[Jacomus-rides-Gen]

haha, well i'm fairly non-conforminst in my own quiet way, and have spent a lot of time in Germany... LOL

 

[Fnaar]

Does Makka Pakka's Uff Uff count as a hand-drier?i

Thank Christ my kids are growing up!

 

[trustysteed]

what gets me is this: you're meant to wash your hands after you've been to the toilet. however, what's the first thing you do after having a peedump?

use your 'dirty' hands to pull up your trousers, do up your fly etc so all the supposed germs have already been transferred to your clothing before you even get near the taps.

so how does that work then?

 

[alecstilleyedye]

what gets me is this: you're meant to wash your hands after you've been to the toilet. however, what's the first thing you do after having a peedump?

use your 'dirty' hands to pull up your trousers, do up your fly etc so all the supposed germs have already been transferred to your clothing before you even get near the taps.

so how does that work then?

walker seems to have the answer:

I normally go for a number 2, have a shower…

 

[trustysteed]

Your hand isn't really dirty though is it?

but if my hand isn't really 'dirty' then surely no-one else's, so i shouldnt worry about touching things where their hands have been?

 

[Maz]

I think I'll shake my hands dry from now on!

 

[Speicher]

I think I'll shake my hands dry from now on!

I was talking to someone I know who knows lots and lots about all sorts of environmental issues etc, including the pros and cons of the hand driers/paper towels. It depends lots of things like if the electricity is from a sustainable source, if the paper is composted etc etc, but in his conclusion he agreed with Maz.

 

[trustysteed]

how about having both a paper towel dispenser and an air dryer installed. you could use the recycled paper to dry your hands, then use the air dryer to dry the paper for the next person's use, hence recycling the recycled paper.

just a thought...