Wet wet wet

I see the sign on electric hand dryers in public restrooms saying that you can save on paper waste by using the dryer. But I’ve always wondered how much energy these devices consumed instead. Until I got this email from Idealbite:

The Benefits

• Earth-friendly etiquette. De-wetting your hands with an electric hand-dryer uses about 1/3 of the electricity needed to produce paper towels (and obviously, no trees get the axe).
• Not soiling the earth.Those paper towels you used to dry your hands aren’t recycled after you throw them away, people.
• Less clean-up for biz-owners after you do your business. Hand-dryers require less maintenance than paper towels, which need constant refilling and don’t always make it into the trash can.

* if 10,000 people use a hand-dryer instead of paper towels next time they’re in a public restroom, we’ll keep the weight of 83 (dry) pants in paper waste outta landfills.