10 years of the long read: Hand dryers v paper towels: the surprisingly dirty fight for the right to dry your hands (2019)

The Audio Long Read

The Guardian

Society & Culture

4.3 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 6 November 2024

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

As the Long Read turns 10 we are raiding the archives to bring you a favourite piece from each year since 2014, with new introductions from the authors. This week from 2019: For a century, the humble paper towel has dominated public toilets. But a new generation of hand dryers has sparked a war for loo supremacy. By Samanth Subramanian. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/longreadpod

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This is The Guardian.
0:08.8	If your client accuses your business of professional negligence and wants compensation.
0:15.3	For example, if you record a radio script in a haphazard and unprofessional manner,
0:28.8	then Hizcox could help protect you.
0:33.2	The story of your business, underwritten by Hyscock's business insurance,
0:39.1	subject to already holding a relevant Hyscox policy and subject to policy eligibility terms and conditions.
0:43.6	Hello, my IT darlings. Is your business still using clumsy on site servers?
0:47.2	Head to Aionos and try our lovely cloud with solid security.
0:50.3	It's super speedy and oh so scalable.
0:54.3	Get big web tech for your business at aionos.co.uk.
1:01.6	The Guardian Archive Long Read.
1:15.7	Hi, my name is Saman Subramanian, and I'm the author of Hand Dryers versus Paper Towels,
1:19.2	The Surprisingly Dirty Fight for the Right Draw Your Hands.
1:22.3	This was published as a Guardian Longread in 2019.
1:31.2	This piece has been selected as a featured archive to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the Long-Maid Prosper.
1:38.0	Every week, the Audio Long-Reed Archive will feature a piece from each year of the past decade.
1:44.4	Like many Guardian Long-Reeds, the idea for this came from the editors of the section,
1:49.6	specifically from Jonathan Shannon, who had just been idly wondering, musing about the hand-brier industry, and wondering about any kind of industrial intrigue between hand-driers and paper towels.
1:56.5	The process of researching it was unique.
1:59.6	There's no real way to set about researching a piece like this.
2:04.4	There's no archive to consult, really. There are no consultants who you can talk to about their views on the industry.
2:10.7	So you go right to the source. You go to paper towel companies and hand dryer companies and you ask them about their work, about how they design their
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Guardian, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Guardian and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.