1. www.postersession.com
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 Consumption
Brian Summey
Lenoir 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_towel
4. "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 Rhyne
Data: 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 Dryer
Compared/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 Impact
Simple Ecology
Robert Ridenour, LR Custodial Manager