It’s a question that many of us are faced with in the bathroom – when it comes to drying our hands, should we reach for the paper towel or the electric hand dryer? For some, the answer to this question might be related to hygiene; for others, drying performance is more important. When it comes to environmental concerns, however, it becomes clear that dryers prevent paper wastage.

But is this really the best choice for drying our hands?

Lifecycle research has consistently shown that the environmental impacts of the electricity and paper used at the point when we actually dry our hands dwarfs the impacts throughout the rest of the lifecycle (including the materials, manufacturing and disposal of dryers and dispensers). This is because we use them many times before they’re replaced.

At the end of the day, however, we consume resources every single time we dry our hands – either paper or electricity.

Research comparing both methods has concluded that both the conventional hand dryer and paper towel perform roughly the same (environmentally speaking). Each method gained, however, a small advantage over the other depending on changes to at least one critical factor, such as:

• Weight and number of paper towels used per dry (the average is 2)
• Proportion of recycled paper
• Power rating and length of time for drying using an electric dryer
• Other regional electricity impacts

So, in some contexts, a paper towel is the slightly better option – in others, it is the dryer.

You may have noticed a new contender in bathrooms over the last few years in the form of a high-speed dryer that uses a non-heated rapid air stream to simply strip the water from our hands.

Several studies have compared this new option with the two traditional ones. At first glance, the high-speed dryer already has an advantage over conventional methods – they have a much shorter drying time (between 12 and 20 seconds, compared with 20 to 40 seconds for conventional dryers) and a lower power rating (around 1.5 kilowatts, compared with 2.4 kilowatts).

Research also compared the impacts associated with generating and using electricity for the dryers with the impacts and emissions related to the production, manufacture and disposal of paper. Again, the high-speed dryer came out on top – even when no fewer than two paper towels were used and when the paper was 100% recycled.

So, what’s the verdict? A compelling argument could be made that, when faced with the choice, we should be reaching for the high-speed hand dryer over the more conventional options available. It is important to keep in mind that this trend could change in the future – paper towels could, for example, become lighter and smaller, or new technologies could be introduced.