In the United States alone, the average person uses 50 pounds of tissue paper per year, using up about seven trees worth of paper. Paper represents over one-third of all municipal waste and roughly 9% of greenhouse gas emissions in the country. With increasing concerns for the destruction of forests, it has become more important to reduce paper waste.
So tell me, why is that people waste so much paper by insisting on drying their hands with paper towels following their going to the bathroom? The other option provided, a technological solution mind you, is the annoyingly loud and energy consuming air-dry-unit. Please, someone explain to me what's wrong with using the back, sides, or front of one's pants? I can understand a woman in a fancy dress or slacks, or a man in a fancy suit, but college kids still wearing their pajamas from the night before? Or a person wearing jeans? It seems that most perform this task rather mindlessly with little consideration for the environmentally destructive action their participating in (needless production and all that comes with it).
Perhaps the next time you wash following your using the toilet, you should consider using your clothing to dry your hands instead of the environmentally unfriendly means provided. Conditioning is a fact of life and we should try our best to recognize those little things that we we're mindlessly conditioned to do so we can stop doing them. Give some feedback. What do you think about the wasteful means for drying ones' hands? Are you willing to dry your hands by simply flicking the water from your fingers down into the sink (2 or 3 quick flicks), and then with little effort, simply wiping the remaining water onto the pants your most likely going to wash after wearing once or twice anyway?