2016 Greeley, Colorado, USA
Hundreds of rolls paper towels are wasted in schools all over Colorado – sitting in landfills when they are not recycled. Students at Northridge High school decided to do something about it. First, they compared the waste of paper towels without the option using of an electric hand dryer, and with the option of using an electric hand dryer for two weeks each. After comparison, the students found that adding the hand dryers reduced the use of paper towels by 3 rolls for the first 11 days; lowering the waste of paper towels by 20% in less than 2 weeks! Knowing that the school is used nearly 47 weeks per year, that’s 90 rolls of paper a year saved by only 2 hand dryers.
Timeline and Budget
- March 10, 2016 Meeting with Mr. Hand; figuring out best ways to install electric hand dryers in restroom
- March 15, 2016 Electric hand dryers ordered (2 for $410 each)
- March 22, 2016 Electric hand dryers’ arrival at Poudre Learning Center
- April 6, 2016 Electric Hand dryers installed at Northridge (estimation was $600)
- April 2016 Start of collecting data
- April 30, 2016 End of collecting data.
- May 1, 2016 Analyze data and start of presentation and poster