All Washed Up!

These days more and more restrooms are replacing those air hand dryers (even the spiffy ones that feel like you're standing next to a jet readying for take-off!) with good ol' paper towels.  And even more and more people are taking two, three and even FOUR paper towels each time to dry their hands (okay - I'll admit it.  I NEVER used a single towel...or at least I didn't before this weekend)!!!

DID YOU KNOW???

• Americans ALONE use 13 BILLION POUNDS of paper towels EVERY YEAR (Yeah, that's BILLION with a Capital "B"!)
• If all of used only one paper towel fewer per day we could save 571 million pounds of paper each year!

Recently, because I knew we were going to be early to a Mariner game, I actually thought ahead and tossed in a magazine to read before the game.  [the August 2013 edition of Good Housekeeping - the one with Hugh Jackman on the cover]  

I don't know how you read a magazine but I approach it much like I do a newspaper - a tip I learned I read years ago [from Bill Cosby, I believe]:  cover to cover, reading all the headlines, the first and last paragraph of each article (and the balance of any article that truly captures my attention).

With magazines, it's slightly different and I actually enjoy reading what the editor-in-chief has to say.  It's rarely more than a page, often has a recipe or cool tip, basically doesn't take too long.

But sometimes...yes, sometimes... what's written there can be truly life-changing!  The focus of this month's issue turned out to be about creative recycling: reducing, reusing, little changes that can net big results.

She (Rosemary Ellis, Editor-in-Chief, Good Housekeeping magazine) tells of how she learned something new from her husband...incredibly enough it was how to properly wash her hands!  As it turns out he had seen is in a "TED" video presentation by Joe Smith (Don't you love those TED video lectures?  If you're not watching them, at least occasionally, you're missing out on a great *FREE* opportunity to learn something new!)

You should really watch the video (it takes only 4 1/2 minutes) but here are the highlights:

1. Wash your hands as usual.
2. SHAKE your hands...12 times (if you want to know why it's 12 times, watch the video)
3. Get a SINGLE paper towel and FOLD it in half.  The folding is the important part because it creates something called "interstitial suspension" which is a fancy, scientific way of saying the water becomes trapped between the paper layers, so you require less paper surface to dry your hands.

It works.  No, it really, REALLY works!  I'll admit to being skeptical at first and  I figured the first time was a fluke ("It's a hot day - maybe my hands actually air dried faster because of the heat" which might have had something to do with it if it hadn't also been so darn humid.)  Time after time I was amazed that something so simple actually worked!

That's it.  SHAKE and FOLD and we're on our way to saving 571 million pounds of paper each and every year!

You're welcome!

~later, tw