Most bathrooms with hand dryers eschew the paper. So the alternative is just walking around with wet hands? Or not washing your hands at all?

Also, how do you open the door in a sanitary way, knowing that many of the hands on that door are really dirt? I remember visiting Google in Palo Alto (old Nest office, I think), and they had ingenious foot-level protrusions that you could use to open the door. Wish they were everywhere, especially as hand dryers replace paper towels!

Here's the secret to drying your hands:

1. Wring them over the sink.

2. Spread your fingers.

3. Shake them for 5 seconds.

That's it, you're done. 15 seconds after you leave the bathroom, your hands will be dry.

Disclaimer: Does not work as well in colder-than-room-temperature environments.

In my coworking space with only hand dryers (eco friendly attempt) I just tear a couple paper towels off in the kitchen and bring them in with me.

The whole "eco friendly" thing about hand dryers never made sense to me. In fact, I think it's a marketing ploy by the air dryer makers. Paper towels are great, and they come from trees, which we can and want to grow more of.

Well, paper and textile production is dirty as hell. Ask anyone old enough to have lived in a mill town.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_paper

I have. From that wiki article, paper mills account for less than 1% of GHGs globally. Also, the most hazardous chemical effluent is dioxins, which have seen major reductions globally within the pulp and paper industry because the industry has switched to processes that use much less chlorine.

I suspect the benefits accrue mostly to the owner of the restroom, as they can cut back on trash removal.

Hand sanitizer (if available) actually does a great job of drying off hands as well!

... or you can just carry a handkerchief with you.