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A picture that shows paper towel holders and bins underneath them. Both are white and the wall behind it is grey.

Why I don’t use paper towels in public bathrooms

Posted on August 7, 2023August 7, 2023

When people use the bathroom at their own house, they use a cotton towel to dry their hands after washing them. Once the towel is dirty, they wash it and reuse it. Zero waste. However, this is usually isn’t the case in public places. At restaurants, libraries, café’s, etc. There, we use paper towels to dry our hands. But in my opinion, using paper towels to dry your hands is unnecessary wasteful. Here’s why I don’t use these paper towels in public bathrooms. 

Paper towels

Using paper towels in public bathrooms to dry your hands is stupid if you’d ask me. (Recycled) paper is made out of trees. Right now, we need all the trees that are on this earth to take up CO2 and avoid a total climate catastrophe. Cutting trees down is not very helpful for that. I understand that trees are a renewable resource, you can plant new ones, but right now we don’t have the luxury to cut down trees. The more trees we have right now, the faster we combat the climate crisis. 

But maybe even more important: why make something if you don’t have to? Like I said, paper is a renewable resource, yes. But I feel that if we can avoid using something, that saves us all time, money and resources. Why go through a whole process of making a product and invest our valuable time if we have simple alternatives? Simple is better if you’d ask me. We can cut out the whole process of cutting trees, making paper from it, shipping the paper, using the paper, recycling the paper, etc. I think we can use the resources and time better. 

Hygiene 

Of course I understand why we don’t use reusable towels at public places like we do at home. It’s not very hygienic and there’s the risk of people taking them home. I wouldn’t vow for restaurants and other public places using reusable towels for people to dry their hands. But I do think there are better solutions out there than paper towels. Other options which are hygienic too. 

Blow-dryer

The best alternative I’ve seen to paper towels is a blow-dryer. Instead of using paper, you are using energy to dry your hands. Some sinks even have the blow-dryer built into the tap. I am aware that this option is not entirely waste-free, as we do need energy for it. We can use renewable energy, which is amazing. But renewable energy is not 100% waste-free yet either. Not 100% of solar panels or wind mills can be recycled yet. I however believe that this will be the case in the future, making air-dryers entirely waste-free if we make the product itself 100% recyclable too. 

Avoiding paper towels

The situation I described above is the ideal situation if you’d ask me. Every public bathroom should have a blow-dryer and no more paper towels. However, we’re not there yet. Until this is the case, I don’t use paper towels in public bathrooms. It’s a very simple habit. Instead of grabbing a few paper towels, I use my wet hands to style my hair while I’m in front of the mirror. When that doesn’t dry my hands entirely, I just use my clothing to dry my hands. In the end, it’s water. And rubbing a little bit of water on your pants will dry eventually. Meanwhile you’re saving a lot of paper, and therefore trees. 

Yours sincerely,
Romee

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ABOUT ME

 

when a teen goes green

Hi! My name is Romee Hoeksma and I am on a journey to an eco-positive life. An eco-positive lifestyle is a lifestyle in which I have a more positive than negative impact on the beautiful planet earth. On this blog you can follow my journey to a life with only positive impact. At this blog you can find all sorts of things, from tips to recipes to personal experiences, but most of all fun (I hope!). I write about how I want to change the world, but don’t look at it as if I’m judging you. If anything, I like responses from my dear readers the most, so don’t hesitate to contact me or respond to any of my posts!

Yours sincerely,
Romee

Here’s what I posted most recently

  • Interrailing through Europe
  • Sustainable and fun hotspots in Ghent, Belgium
  • Crowd-funding for a better financial sector
  • Cancel culture doesn’t exist
  • Why I don’t use paper towels in public bathrooms

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Dit is hoe ik met de trein van Krásná Lípa (🇨🇿) naar Bratislava (🇸🇰) reisde. Dit was reisdag 3/6 van onze duurzame interrail reis. Ik ben vandaag 25 jaar geworden 🥳. Ik hoop heel hard dat dat betekent dat ik ongeveer op een kwart van mijn leven ben. En wat een verjaardag is dit! Ik mag het vieren in Kopenhagen met mijn favoriete persoon @casperchristiaanse , terwijl ik met de trein door Europa reis 🚃. Ik ben een gelukkig mens. Op naar de 50! Dit is hoe ik van Dresden (🇩🇪) naar Krásná Lípa (🇨🇿) reisde. Niet een bijster lange, maar wel een prachtige treinreis, omdat je door het nationaal park Boheems Zwitserland gaat. Dit was de tweede reisdag van onze interrail (2/6). We zijn op de helft van de interrail. Terwijl ik dit typ zijn we onderweg naar Warschau (8,5 uur vanaf Bratislava). Nog twee bestemmingen te ontdekken, maar wat hebben we nu al veel genoten. Elke dag goed en lang slapen, nieuw vegan eten proberen, bijzonder lang wandelen, spelletjes spelen, weinig schermtijd, genieten van de mooie uitzichten en zon: deze reis is genieten 💜. Dit is hoe ik met de trein van Amsterdam naar Dresden reisde 🚃. De interrail is officieel begonnen! (1/6) Vandaag verschijnt er geen artikel op mijn blog. En de komende twee weken hierna ook niet. Dat is voor het eerst, in de 7 jaar dat ik schrijf. Een heel leuk onderdeel van duurzaam leven is tweedehands kleding. Hier zijn 4 tweedehands outfits die ik droeg in augustus 2023 🌞. Je zag het al in de reel van vorige week: ik ben op vakantie geweest naar Gent, in België. Het was een ontzettende aanrader, en daarom verscheen er vandaag een artikel op mijn blog over de leukste en duurzaamste hotspots in Gent 🌆. Check it out via de link in mijn bio Gent, wat was je prachtig 🌆. Dit is absolute een duurzame vakantietip (oh, maar wees niet zo naïef als ik en ga lekker met de trein 🚃). Binnenkort is op Youtube de gehele vakantievlog te bekijken.

Read my latest posts

  • Interrailing through Europe
  • Sustainable and fun hotspots in Ghent, Belgium
  • Crowd-funding for a better financial sector
  • Cancel culture doesn’t exist
  • Why I don’t use paper towels in public bathrooms

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