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With this trick you need less paper towels


Photo: iStock

The trick is called "shaking and folding" ...

One would think that a paper towel can not be misused. But! There's a trick, so we'll have to use a lot less kitchen paper and paper towels.

After we have washed our hands in a public toilet, of course we dry them off, mostly with paper towels. And not just with one, but rather with two or three of the towels.

What a waste! No wonder that in Germany, we consume over 18 kilograms of hygienic paper per person per year. In the last ten years, demand for tissue paper in Germany has increased from one million tonnes to 1.5 million tonnes.

But one of the little towels is simply not enough to dry our hands. It is immediately wet and fibrous.

That's because we use it wrong! In fact, we also get our hands dry with a paper towel!

And that's easy: shaking and folding (or "shake and fold", see video below)!

After washing your hands, you should first shake your hands over the sink to remove excess water. And then you take exactly a paper towel and fold it once!

The fact that two layers of paper are superimposed, creates a narrow space between the layers. An "interstitial suspension" arises - an additional space in which the water can be collected. This increases the absorbency of the paper towel.

The same applies to kitchen paper: once folded, it absorbs much more.

The self-test with the paper towels shows: It actually works, you can dry your hands well with just a cloth. If you shake well before and fold the cloth. However, the long shaking of the hands is a bit time consuming: If you are in a public restroom, where a lot is going on, so that there is already a queue behind you at the sink, it is rather impractical.

So you can save even more:

Savings tips: How to lower your additional costs

36 saving tips for you and your family

WW5

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