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Have you ever considered the impact our campus’ paper towel usage has on the world? In fact, “the paper industry is the third largest contributor to global warming” (The Paperless Project). Economically and environmentally friendly hand dryers exist, yet paper towels are the choice of habit. Which do you prefer? Paper towels are one of the most wasteful products we purchase daily and dispose of without regret. Believe it or not a percentage of tuition goes towards paper towels, dispensers, and the batteries to operate. If we replaced every paper towel dispenser with high-speed hand dryers we could (possibly) reduce tuition and our impact on the world.

Statistics

• 17 trees 20,000 gallons of water are polluted to produce one ton of paper (The Paperless Project).

• U.S. uses more than 13 billion pounds of paper towels each year equaling more than 3,000 tons of paper towel waste (The Paperless Project).

• 51,000 trees are required everyday to replace the number of paper towels thrown away (The Paperless Project).

• If each U.S. household used just one less roll of paper towels, it would save 544,000 trees per year (The Paperless Project).

• If each U.S. household used three less rolls/year it would save 120,000 tons of waste and $4.1 million in landfill fees (The Paperless Project).

Question

This raises question to how much we annually spend on paper towels at LR. How does manufacturing of paper towels affect the environment? Paper towels vs hand dryers.

Methods Conclusions

LR’s Paper Towel ConsumptionBrian SummeyLenoir Rhyne University

Bibliography

Data was collected from an interview with Robert Ridenour, Lenoir Rhyne Custodial Manager, and is contracted though Aramark. The information provided by him included the quantity of paper towels used, the cost of paper towels and D batteries over a ten month period.

A calculation was done on the XLERATOR® hand dryer website. This calculation compared and contrasted the cost and environmental impact of paper towels vs hand dryers.

Research through The Paperless Project, Environmental Impact, and Simple Ecology provided information on how paper towel consumption affects the environment.

The following map shows how many miles of paper towels are bought January 1-December 31, 2014 at LR.

1. "How to Reduce Your Paper Towel Use - The Paperless Project -Join the Grassroots Movement." The Paperless

Project RSS. 1 June 2014. Web. 3 Dec. 2014.

2. Ridenour, R. (2014, Oct 22). Personal interview.

3. Cichocki, Andrzej. "Paper Towel, C-fold." Environmental Impact. Web. 3 Dec. 2014.

http://envimpact.org/paper_towel4. "Soft Tissue Paper Is Hard on the Environment." RSS. 12 Mar.

2009. Web. 3 Dec. 2014.

5. "The EcoHas Landed." Excel Hand Dryer. 1 Jan. 2014. Web. 3 Dec. 2014.

Lenoir RhyneData: 01/2014-10/2014 Paper towels have a large impact on the environment.

They are a costly item for LR to purchase and we would save on cost and environmental impact if we converted to hand dryers. With paper waste being the third largest contributor to global warming we could all do our part in reduce, recycle, and reuse. By converting to hand dryers we would:• Reduce deforestation• Cut water and energy used in manufacturing• Reduce the toxic dioxin used for pulp bleaching• Reduce sewer and landfill waste• Save 80-90% in costs

Introduction Results

Quantity of paper towels used 2,184 rolls

Cost of paper towels $10,006.36

Cost of 378 D batteries $438.48

Robert Ridenour, LR Custodial Manager

Average XLERATOR® cost per year ($0.15/KWH) $436.80

Savings (01/14-10/14) $9,569.56

Paper towel waste eliminated 8,000 lbs.

Reduction of carbon footprint 81%

Trees saved 144

Gallons of water saved 170,000

Hand DryerCompared/contrasted with LR

Exceldryer

Paper towels are not made from 100% recycled paper. They’re made from recycled paper fibers. Essentially they are 50% recycled post-consumer paper. The production of paper towels has the following environmental impact:• Deforestation destroying wildlife habitat• Water and air pollution: dioxins, other cancer

causing chemicals• Third largest emitter of global warming gases• Transportation• 28% household waste is paper

Andrzej Cichocki, Environmental ImpactSimple Ecology

Robert Ridenour, LR Custodial Manager