Paper Towels and Hand Dryers

BY: Christina Vang, Selina Lor, Ka Houa Xiong, and Chane Chang

VS.

Paper Towels – Pro(s) • Mobile

By using paper towels, you can dry your hands while walking without waiting.

• Sanitation (reduces bacteria)The study from Mayo Clinic shows that there is no difference between paper towels and hand dryers in removing bacteria. However, if it was to pick between them two, paper towels will be the best choice as of reducing bacteria.

• Dries fasterWhile a hand dryer takes 43 secs to dry your hands, it takes paper towels 8-10 secs.

Paper Towels – Con(s)• The environment in the bathrooms has more dirt• Emits more CO2 in the air which causes more

landfill because of disposal of the paper towels• More maintenance which hiring more staff is

required• In order for us to get paper towels, we’ll have to

cut down trees , pollutes the water, and we are losing too many trees

• Expensive to get refills, manufacture cleaning supplies, trash bins, dispensers, bags for bins, and transportation for disposal.

Expense and Quantity

Q: How much paper towel do we use?A: We use about 1,296,000 of paper towels annually year

Q: What is the cost of our electricity per hour?A: $ 0.88 per hour

Q: What is the total annual hand drying cost per month?A: The total annual hand drying cost is $3,801.60

Hand DryersPros

• New generation of dryers are more environment friendly• Dryers last longer (7-10 Years)• More cost-efficient/cheaper to maintain• Cleaner environment/ prevent wastage (no end products to take to the landfills)• Less maintenance( dryers are always ready 24/7, no re-fills, no complaints from consumers

Cons• Expensive energy bills• Expensive for replacement • Length of dying time per person (takes about 43 secs to fully dry hands) – newer ones takes up to 8-10 sec• Not the most hygienic method – Mayo Clinic found no differences)• Make loud noises

eXtreme Air GTX Hand Drying Sensors

Q: What does this high speed hand dryer have to offer?A: This hand dryer blows out warm air and has an adjustable motor setting which lets you control the speed of the motor. This hand dryer is two times as fast as standard thirty second hand dryers. If you decrease the speed, it’ll reduce the power requirements and the noise level. This hand dryer is also about half the size of most other high speed hand dryers and weighs only 11 pounds. This high speed hand dryer is also lsited on GreenSpec and is approved and qualified for LEED credits

Q: How much will this cost?A: For every one dryer it only cost $340 each. For 50 dryers this will cost $17,000

Q: How much does shipping cost?A: The shipping is FREE for eXtreme Air

Product is from: American Dryer

Q: How much energy will this take up?A: eXtreme Air takes only 540 watts and uses about 80% less energy than older traditional hand dryers

Q: How long will eXtreme Air take to dry your hands?A: It will only take 12 to 15 seconds to dry your hands

Q: How long is the warranty in effect?A: There is a five year warranty

Q: How many watts does this product use?A: They use 110-240 volts

Excel Xlerator Hand Dryer

Q: Why Excel Xlerator?A: The Xlerator dries hands within 10 – 15 seconds. You would also save about 95% of your cost by buying the hand dryer instead of paper towels. The Xlerator is made to use up 80% less energy than any other hand dryers. It is to be known as the most hygienic hand drying solution to many companies. This dryer is 3x faster than any other dryer. It also has a warranty for 5 years. The Xlerator was the first hand dryer to be green spec listed which qualifies for LEED credits.

Q: What are some of the researches you had to do to find out which one was a better deal?A: We had a research that our school orders about 15 cases of paper towels which would only last us for 2 weeks and only has 6 rolls in each case. Each roll has about 800 ft. which is equivalent to 4,800 linear ft/case for roll towels. For every case, the school pays about $25 with free shipping. Doing all the math, in the end we realized that school pays about $6,750 per year just for paper towels.

Q:How big is the dryer?A: The dimensions are 11 ¾” by 12 11/16” and weighs about 16 lbs.

Q: How green is the hand dryer?A: By switching to the Xlerator, you will be saving about 107.08 trees, 18.90 meters of landfill, 125,981 gallons of water, and also 118.81 gallons of gasoline emissions. Xlerator will also reduce carbon footprint by 80.77%, save about 5,714 lbs. of paper towel waste, and 10,800.82 kgs. of climate change benefits.

Q: How much is the school’s electric bill?A: The school pays about 25,531.58 every month for electricity. If we were to switch to Xlerator, we would be saving 80% energy by taking away the paper towels.

Q: How much does one dryer cost?A: If you only buy one, the cost would be $400. If you were to buy about 50 which would be how much we would need for our school would be $360 each with a total of $18,000 with free shipping and handling.

Energy being saved by using Xlerator Hand dryer

Case Studies• Located in Portland, Maine• Jim Leo – Operations Manager takes care of all the maintenance with

their 6 large bathrooms on both floors.• They had 21 hand dryers that needed constant repairs done such as

unblock sensors or repair or replace heater coils or motor within 3 years of purchase

• Didn’t pick paper towels due to blockage of toilets and also overflowing trash cans

• Decided to go with Xlerator dryer and within 3 years only had to do one maintenance on one dryer

• Leo stated that the Xlerator only used about 1500 watts compared to the old one which took about 2300 watts.

• Xlerator also shuts off after 2 seconds hands are removed from the sensors

• With the money and energy saved, they had time to focus on other issues such as new hallway lighting and in the arena and also a new heating and an updated refrigeration system for the ice plant

Proposal• Step 1: present to Mr. Huggins for approval • Step 2: present to AASD for approval – Ask for school grants?

• Step 3: organize a committee • Step 4: do additional research • Step 5: find other grants and deals• Step 6: ACTION!!!