Keeping Your Hands Clean and Dry

GRADE 5 PERSUASIVE ESSAY

Although some people don’t like using automatic hand dryers in restrooms, it can be argued that motion-sensing hand dryers are a practical alternative to paper towels. More and more businesses are investing in automatic hand dryers for their restrooms today. For one reason, they are more sanitary than paper towels. Secondly, they are actually cheaper than using paper towels. Lastly, automatic hand dryers keep the restrooms cleaner. I believe that our school would benefit from investing in automatic motion-sensing hand dryers in all the restrooms.
First of all, the automatic hand dryer is very sanitary. Instead of pulling on a lever that has been touched by a large number of students, users can just stick their hands under the air dryer. No germs can get on them because there is nothing to touch. Just think how the attendance rate would improve. Kids wouldn’t get sick from the germ-infested paper towel dispensers we now use at our school. This would keep kids’ hands germ-free.
In addition, if the school buys automatic hand dryers, we can save money that can be spent on more important things. I have noticed that there is a terrible waste of paper towels in the restrooms. For example, students continuously pull on the lever, dispensing towels that they do not really need. It is annoying to find the dispenser empty. Our custodian is called several times a day to bring in bundles of replacements, just because some kids are wasteful. All of these paper towels cost a lot of money. An automatic hand dryer costs approximately $500, with very little additional cost over time. On the other hand, paper towels can cost $25 a case, or about $500 a year, since we use about 20 cases each year. After just one year, it would pay for itself. If we installed automatic hand dryers, we would not waste paper towels, and it would save the school a ton of money.
Finally, our bathroom is a paper towel mess! There are always piles of paper towels on the floor. Sometimes the extras fall from the dispenser unused. Many times kids bunch their used towel in into a ball and aim for a basket. But if they miss the target, the paper ball stays on the floor. Sometimes the towels are even tossed to the ceiling like spitballs. Paper towels leave so much litter in the restrooms that the restrooms are a mess – even before the end of the day!
Some people think that automatic hand dryers don’t dry their hands as thoroughly as paper towels. People stand in front of the hand dryers for just a few seconds, and they are disappointed that their hands do not feel dry. However, studies have shown that when people dry their hands for at least 30 seconds, automatic dryers actually dry much better than paper towels. It is difficult to get every part of your hand dry using paper towels. The blast of air makes sure that your hands are completely dry … if you take a few extra seconds.
Keeping kids healthy, saving money, and helping our school stay clean are strong reasons for installing automatic hand dryers. Every day that goes by without having them means that we are continuing to have problems in our restrooms because we are using paper towels. Let’s install automatic hand dryers as soon as possible!