Make It Easier to Save the Trees

When I see signs like this asking me to be green in one way or another, I'm very willing to comply.

So when I saw the sign I looked all around the restroom, but didn't see any hand dryers except for the paper dispenser in front of my face.

I didn't see anything near the water faucets or on the other walls in the room, so I pulled out a few paper towels and dried my hands. I put the paper towels in the garbage along with all the others, and then when I headed out of the restroom, I saw the hand dryers in the hallway. I didn't notice them on the way in because that wasn't the main thing on my mind at the time.

Are you with me here?

One of the first rules of good design is to keep things where they're going to be used most, and this is especially important in public places. I didn't even see the hand dryer until after I dried my hands. I wonder whose idea it was to install them around the corner in the hallway? McCarran needs to hire new restroom designers who understand the needs of travelers.

I was pulling luggage on wheels. The last thing I wanted to do was to grab my luggage with wet hands and start looking around for hand dryers. If this had been several years ago, I might have sent one of my kids off for this game of hide & seek.

The partially bubbled bumper sticker on the paper towel dispenser is a clue that the hand dryers were probably an afterthought, installed after management at the airport decided to take efforts to be more green. The bubbles in the bumper sticker also whisper out a lack of concern for quality by the person who installed it.

I suppose it's better to have the hand dryers in the hallway than not to have them at all. Maybe the employees know about them and use them. But they're sort of in the way in the hallway. Although there wasn't a line when I used the restroom, I'm sure the dryers are inconveniently placed if people are entering and exiting the restroom with luggage while some people are standing around drying their hands. This seems like it's designed to create a traffic jam.

If McCarran wanted to encourage people to use the hand dryers, they'd be the choice closest to the sinks. I just checked out the McCarran website and I didn't see anything on their "GREEN Initiatives." Since they screamed out "GREEN" on their bumper sticker, I thought they'd have a quick link to "GREEN Initiatives" on their website, but if it's there, I couldn't find it.

On a green design scale of 1-10, I give them a 3: one point for the bubbled bumper sticker, one point for installing the hand dryers and one more point for good luck next time I'm in Vegas.

If you're a member of the American Restroom Association or the World Toilet Organization can you please spread the word that McCarran might have a few underused hand dryers that they can donate to a good cause?

Interested in flying through greener airports? Plan your next trip around a long layover at one of the World's Ten Greenest Airports.

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