We’re going to start by saying that we’re a brand that sells hand dryers AND paper towel dispensers, so we’re not saying you should completely ditch paper towels in your public restroom facilities. What we are saying is that hand dryers offer certain benefits that paper towels don’t. The two main differences between hand dryers and paper towel dispensers are the ways they affect our hygiene and the ways they affect the environment.

1. Hand dryers, especially touchless hand dryers, mean less physical contact within public restrooms, which is better for hygiene.

Think about it: we touch a LOT of different surfaces in a day, and then we walk into a public restroom and touch some more. We take germs with us, and we leave them behind; the best way to prevent that is to touch as little as possible, and of course, wash and dry our hands thoroughly when we’re done.

Many paper towel dispensers require you to pull a handle or turn a lever to get your paper towels after washing your hands. If thoroughly drying our hands is just as important to stop the spread of harmful germs, though, why are we touching yet another surface in the bathroom before we’ve dried our hands post-washing?

Touchless hand dryers, especially those featuring a HEPA filter, use a motion sensor to detect when to start blowing air, and the HEPA filter purifies the air coming out of the hand dryer. Hygienically speaking, hand dryers are cleaner and do a much better job at preventing the spread of germs than paper towels.

2. Hand dryers produce less waste, which is better for the environment.

Worldwide, around 13 billion pounds of paper towels get used every year, and the number just keeps rising. Hand dryers, on the other hand, don’t produce any kind of waste until they eventually get thrown out.

Even when it’s time to replace your hand dryer, though, you don’t need to worry about your old one hurting the environment too much thanks to most brands’ shifting focus toward using environmentally friendly materials to build their products. It’s also worth mentioning that hand dryers last for years, so they’re thrown out a lot less often than paper towels!

At the end of the day, hand dryers offer more benefits than paper towel dispensers, especially in terms of personal hygiene and protecting the environment. We hope this information is helpful to you as you navigate furnishing your own public restroom facility!