Dyson has recently commissioned MIT to carry out a life cycle assessment of the global warming potential of a number of hand drying systems. And, guess what? Standard warm air dryers came out worst, followed by paper towels with the Dyson Airblade being the best performer. Woop-de-doop!
Cynicism aside, the study does remind us that careful thought about contributing factors is very important when comparing impacts. Paper towels, for instance, obviously have no energy-in-use impact but do, according to the study, have a whacking great embodied energy component. Traditional warm air dryers, by contrast, are the heaviest in-use energy users.
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