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.