Several months ago in a fit of anger some chucklehead smashed the paper towel dispenser in one of the Men’s Rooms at work. Today the replacement was installed.
With the old dispenser it took 3 pulls of the lever to get what I felt was the perfect amount of towel to bring my hands to the proper dryness level, 2 feet. With the new dispenser, 3 pulls gets you close to half that total or about 1 foot of paper. Maybe this is government mandated like the 1 gallon per flush toilets or maybe everyone thinks that this will help save the planet, i.e. less trees cut down, less energy used to make the paper, less trash generated etc. As a bonus I’m sure the company feels it will save money on buying the paper towels.
Ah, Mr. Smarty-pants, wrong answer! I still need 2 feet of paper to dry my hands. The same amount of energy and waste will be produced and you will now lose money as it takes twice as long for me to dry my hands. Say an extra 30 seconds at a time. 2 trips to the bathroom a day, times 1/2 minute. times 5 days, times 52 weeks, equals 4 hours and twenty minutes. With my exorbitant salary that’s a lot of dough.
While we are on the subject of bathrooms and paper towels, why can’t people actually dispose of their waste? We have those trashcans that have two half flaps that cover the top and for some reason most folks won’t push down hard enough to make it past the flaps. Too much effort? More than likely they are afraid of coming in contact with the plastic flaps in the fear of catching something from the germs that are lurking there. That’s pretty flawed logic because what about the germs that are living on the door handle they must touch to get out of the bathroom? You can bet that at least one person each day dribbles on his hands and then walks out not washing his hands…