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Cloth Towels vs. Hand Dryers: Which One is Better?

Paying attention to hygiene has always been an effective method of preventing bacteria and infectious diseases from spreading.

Recently, the importance of hand drying has become clear and it is now considered an important part of hand hygiene habits.

The reason for that are studies which show that bacteria are less likely to be transmitted from dry skin than it is from wet.

There is more than one way of hand drying. We are all used to seeing both towel dispensers and warm air hand dryers in public bathrooms and at work.

But have you ever wondered which option is the better one? Keep reading to find out.

Research done by the University of Westminster has shown that using warm air hand dryers can actually lead to even more bacteria on your hands. Using cloth towels, however, reduces the number of bacteria on your hands.

The purpose of continuous cloth towel dispensers is to isolate bacteria, and the unused towel section is safely separated from the used part until it needs to be removed for cleaning. Unlike cloth towel dispensers, warm air hand dryers are capable of spreading the bacteria even up to two meters away from the dryer.

There is also an environmental aspect to be considered. Cloth towel dispensers don’t need electricity, so they definitely preserve energy more than warm air dryers do. Also, cloth towels are not only cleaned and reused many times but also recycled as a washcloth, which makes both the production cost and the environmental impact much lower.

It’s needless to say that keeping your hands clean is important. And when it comes to drying them, using cloth towels seems to be a better way.

With all that in mind, if you are looking for a hygienic, soft, and most importantly, eco-friendly way of hand drying at your workplace, all you need to do is contact the professionals at Alsco and they will be more than happy to help you find a solution that fits your needs best.


Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

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