The environmentally friendly answer to the paper towel
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
The “Personal Towel” is the environmentally friendly answer to replace the use of paper towels and electric hand-dryers in washrooms, whether public or corporate and the idea is rather a simple one and a bit like carrying an oversize handkerchief, like a bandanna, for instance, on you.
The size would, theoretically, a little smaller than that of a standard size bandanna and bit more like the size of a linen napkin as often found in restaurants. In fact that is just about the right size and such napkins do brilliantly for the purpose.
With your own “Personal Towel” – and you do not have to go out and buy one – you always have a towel on which to dry your hands after using a washroom or such, saving on the use of paper towels or energy for the electric hand-dryer. And how many times have you been in a washroom at a railroad station or other location only to find that they did not have a hand-dryer and the paper towels had run out? No problem if you carry your own “personal towel.
Personally, I always carry an oversize handkerchief and more often than not use it to dry my hands on when using washrooms and it is something that is as easy as pie.
But the way this is being marketed as the “People Towel” by the makers of this not ethical, yet again, as it is not a new invention and has been something a number of people have been doing for years, some because of their culture, for instance.
The “Personal Towel” is also a great way of recycling some bed sheets and such, such as a cotton T-shirt, for instance. If you can sew and especially with a sewing machine then you can easily make such a towel in next to no time. And, should you be thus inclined, you could even make a lot of them, if you have the materials, for trade.
Such a “personal towel”, in my opinion, is a very hygienic way as well for even, in my view, with using a electric hand-dryer or paper towels there is still the chance you come into contact with the machine or the dispenser and pick up someone else's germs.
Paper towels are a bane to the Planet but we are now being told by agencies that they have a lower carbon footprint than electric hand driers and the use of the paper towel in washrooms is being encouraged again. It would appear that we may be getting legislation even – in due course – that will make the use of paper towel mandatory and penalize the dryer option.
While it would be perfectly simple to make paper towels, like toilet tissue, from recycled paper, in the great majority they are not. They are, primarily, made from virgin fiber, which certainly does not make sense to me.
© 2011
