Jon and Ambers going GREEN!!!!!!

GOING GREEN

It was very difficult for me to believe that no one had thought of our idea for going green before we did. However, we have no problem taking credit for the thoughts. It was our thought that having hand dryers in the restrooms at our university would cut down on paper costs as well as cut down on the amount of trees being used for paper. Our thoughts made sense but after research our suspicions were confirmed. There are many sites that offer comparisons on the pros and cons of hand dryers opposed to paper towel use. The biggest factor being spoke of on the internet was the amount of money that is to be saved by using hand dryers opposed to using paper towels. The numbers varied from state to state and site to site. The figure that came up the most was quiet astounding. We found that public places that used hand dryers instead of paper towels in their restrooms saved an average of 95 percent of the cost that paper products would usually fall under in their company. It makes perfect sense that not using paper would save in paper cost. However, the implementation of hand dryers in a place is not free. The dryers range from 86 dollars up to well past 500 dollars in unit cost. It really depends on what your company is looking for and how many units they are looking to purchase. Many of the sites that I visited displayed hand dryers with varying styles and colors. The one that thing that stood out to me was the fact that nearly all of them came with a big warranty. The majority of the dryers had warranties in excess of five years. Hand dryers also use very little electricity. Some may argue that might not be an accurate statement because some restrooms may be busier than others. An average public restroom uses over 3000 pieces of paper towel during a 2 week period. That number is astounding when you have the opportunity to be using zero. Many hand dryers are certified by various organizations devoted to the going green effort. One study that I found most interesting was public school in Topeka, Kansas. This school installed the hand dryer units in their school to see if they would actually save money and do any good for the environmental effort they were pushing towards. The school had 102 wall units installed in their restrooms all over the campus. The findings of their study were quite informative. They saved 587 trees. They saved 690,000 of water. 34.5 tons of solid waste was saved by not having any paper to throw away. 103.5 cubic yards of landfill space was saved by the lack of trash produced by the school. The most astounding fact was this school system saved 90,000 dollars a year. If that is not going green I don’t know what is.