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FWIW, air blast hand dryers are inferior at removing bacteria. The reality is that most people using a public washroom only do a cursory washing of hands - not the scrubbing that surgeons do as part of prep. That leaves a lot of bacteria and germs on the hands. With paper towels, the scrubbing action of drying removes a significant portion of those and acts to prevent disease. With an air dryer, those germs that get scrubbed off go into a nice aerosol that everyone in the washroom gets to breathe, or end up in that dirty area on the floor that exists under every heavily used air blast dryer.
I could design a tray of kitty litter that would be totally energy efficient at drying hands, but it would not be particularly sanitary. Air blast dryers fit that same category. The rule of design is to get the task done and THEN worry about efficiencies.
I usually just shake my hands briskly to get most of the water off and go. Or I use the bandana I keep in my purse as a towel. It doubles as a napkin.
After washing, I just squeeze the water out of each hand into the sink, using my other hand, pulling in a downwards motion -- Similar to the motion of milking a cow. Then what little water remains, I shake off. I only use moist paper towels to wash off my shoe soles (necessary after stepping in messy puddles under urinals).
People are so thoughtless and messy anyway, about letting paper towels overflow onto the floor. It only takes one-second of time to mash them tighter in the waste basket, but people are too lazy to do this - they would rather let them overfloor on the floor, making a mess.
Agreed that conventional hot air dryers are not great, but they're still better than a paper towel dispense that is empty, or a cloth towel machine with a used up roll.
The new generation of air dryers, however, are a whole other breed of cat. In my experience the Dyson AirBlade hand drier does a very thorough job in only about 8 or 10 seconds, and the airflow does not spill outside the appliance.
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