As of August, paper towel dispensers across 224 UTSG washrooms are no longer being restocked under a waste reduction pilot initiative. In an effort to reduce the environmental impact of campus operations, paper towel dispensers will no longer be restocked at major campus buildings like Robarts Library, being replaced with energy-efficient hand dryers. Promoting the initiative are the “Hey, no paper towels?!” posters plastered onto dispensers in the affected bathrooms.

This initiative was spearheaded by the Student Leadership Subcommittee (SLS) of the President’s Advisory Committee on the Environment, Climate Change, and Sustainability (CECCS) in partnership with the Facilities and Services (F&S) Caretaking team.

U of T’s waste reduction goals 

In an email to The Varsity, Harshit Gujral, a fourth-year computer science PhD student and former co-chair of the SLS, wrote that the paper waste reduction could save up to 407 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year. 

According to the 2024 UTSG waste audit report, a total of 321,262 kilograms of paper towel and tissue waste was generated on campus, with 289,013 kilograms sent to landfill. 

In fall 2024, members of the SLS reviewed the potential of paper waste reduction, and by November 2024, voted to make this initiative a top priority. The pilot received strong support from UTSG’s Sustainability Office, the Governing Council, and the Research and Operations subcommittees of CECCS. 

Reflecting on this support, Gujral wrote, “I thought getting the university to agree to any sustainable change would require lots of persuasion on the part of SLS. I was wrong. Everyone we talked with supported our initiatives, but they shared with us some real systemic bottlenecks.”

Student’s heated response to hand-dryers

While student perspectives on this initiative are still being collected through a feedback form, the pilot has already received mixed reactions. 

“Some congratulated us on collaborating across the secretariat to make this sustainable change happen, whereas others are not very happy because the paper towel is gone. I think if students knew that SLS [started this initiative] to avoid approximately 71 tons of paper towels incinerated annually, they’d support this initiative,” wrote Gujral. 

According to him, F&S had attempted a similar initiative before the pandemic, but it was largely unsuccessful because of the belief that hand-dryers are less hygienic. 

The pilot’s website reads, “research indicates no significant difference in the spread of bacteria between using hand dryers and paper towels.” CECCS cites five studies to support this statement — although three of the studies were funded by Dyson, a hand dryer production company.

The research on the hygiene of paper towels compared to hand dryers has been inconclusive or inconsistent in the results, and many of the major studies were industry-sponsored. Studies funded by the European Tissue Symposium favour paper towels; studies funded by Dyson favour hand dryers. 

While the paper towel waste reduction pilot is SLS’s most recent initiative, the subcommittee has led several other successful projects promoting sustainability and campus health. For example, SLS previously introduced biodegradable soaps and cleaning products to reduce the environmental and health impacts of harmful chemicals.