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Enter the Xlerator?: Hand Drying at Smith CollegeRebecca KeaneMay 4, 2005Smith CollegeEVS 300Partner: Kim WilsonAbstract.The issue of hand drying may at first seem a mundane, trivial matter unworthy of any substantial scrutiny or consideration. However, when evaluated with a level of increased profundity, hand drying becomes a subject deserving of ample, involved analysis. A closer look at hand drying reveals that it is a task that has environmental ramifications that are far-reaching and manifold. It is important to try to recognize these impacts and determine exactly how they effect the environment so that it can then be decided if the impacts need to be changed through the changing of the basic task: hand drying. Hence, this project aims to look at hand drying as it unfolds on the Smith College campus. It explores how paper towel usage at Smith impacts the environment and compares aspects of paper towel use to those of electric hand dryer use to determine whether replacing paper hand towels with electric dryers would be more environmentally friendly. The project also looks at things like the monetary costs of hand drying through the use of different products and then contends that while the initial cost of replacement may at first seem daunting, the use of an energy efficient hand dryer would be more ecologically and economically efficient than the continued use of paper towels both in theimmediate and distant futures. Introduction.The simple act of using a paper towel or turning on electric hand dryer effects the environment in so many ways that they are almost indiscernible and incalculable. Some of these impacts and the effect they have upon the environment are obvious, such as the generation of solid waste when a paper towel is thrown out or the consumption of energy when a hand dryer is turned on. Other impacts, like the energy used and the pollution 2produced during the making or the transporting of these products might be less conspicuous and easily gauged. Yet, when it is considered that each day on the Smith College campus, students and faculty are consistently and frequently drying their hands with paper towels, throwing them away, creating waste, and virtually consuming all of the energy used to produce the paper towels, it seems important, perhaps even vital, to tryto identify and quantify these less conspicuous impacts. Doing so could then actualize thepotential for change if the usage of paper towels is found to be a problem because of its environmental meaning. Alternatives, such as the use of electric hand dryers, can be investigated through the same criteria and utilized if plausible. Of course, as previously mentioned, accounting for all of the environmental effects for something like paper towel and hand dryer usage is nearly impossible. The impacts have the capability to be so far-flung and voluminous that even merely identifying them all, never mind quantifying their significance on the environment, could prove an incessant and epic undertaking. But, with the use of a Product Life Cycle Analysis [PLCA], this task can be accomplished on some abstract and partial, yet useful and valuable, level. The PLCA is “…a complicated methodology for identifying the energy and other resource requirements as well as the environmental impacts associated with every stage in the life of a product.” (Portney 1993, 69) It resembles a chart or diagram and seeks to account for things like the pollution generated, the energy used, andthe environmental harm garnered through the processes involved with the product’s raw material collection, manufacturing, distribution, usage, and disposal. (Portney 1993, 69) The PLCA is a tool and can be designed, applied to an issue and employed in any way its user sees fit. The PLCA and the results it helps to find can thus be as abstract and 3simplistic or as specific and intricate as the user wants, a characteristic of the PLCA that renders any results found as susceptible to the influences of bias. Despite these latent shortcomings, for the purpose of examining hand drying at Smith, the PLCA is an expedient and valuable instrument.In fact, the PLCA laid the groundwork for this project. After considering the web of complexity that a simple issue like hand drying can create in the context of environmental issues and then discovering that the PLCA could be used to tangibly elucidate this web, we were able to realistically set some goals for our hand drying project. Essentially, the overall objective of the project is to look at hand drying as it occurs on the Smith campus today and establish whether it is environmentally hazardous and should be altered to make it less so. Since Smith uses recycled paper towels as its primary hand drying mechanism, this meant researching the environmental impacts of using recycled paper towels generally, applying these implications into Smith’s specific context in order to determine the footprint that Smith’s paper towel usage forms, and thenexploring whether other means of hand drying, specifically the use of electric hand dryers, on the Smith campus would create a smaller footprint. To assess the plausibility ofchanging over to hand dryers if need be, we also measured and compared the monetary costs associated with using paper towels and hand dryers. Additionally, to make our comparisons and thus our findings fully comprehensive,we decided to compare recycled paper towels with two different types of hand dryers- a standard model and then a green version. The standard model considered is called the “Lexan,” and is sold by a company called Excel, which also produces the green dryer we researched. The green hand dryer is known as the “Xlerator” and is advertised as being 4three times faster and eighty percent more energy efficient than standard dryers. (www.exceldryer.com) The Xlerator, which runs for cycles of 10 to 15 seconds rather than the 30 to 45 time span employed by other dryers, is the only “GreenSpec approved” and “LEED Certified” hand dryer on the market (Excel Dryer 2004). In terms of this project, the two hand dryers were hypothetically considered as if being utilized by the Smith campus and examined in a similar way as were recycled paper towels. All of this allowed us to compare the usage and costs of the three products and to actualize as the main conclusion of the project that the most environmentally-sound and energy and cost efficient hand drying mechanism that


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Smith EVS 300 - Enter the Xlerator

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