October 15th is Global Handwashing Day: This year’s theme is “Clean Hands for All.” It follows the push to leave no one behind in the Sustainable Development Agenda. Inequalities in handwashing facilities and effective handwashing promotion programs can put individuals at higher risk for diseases that impact their health, education, and economic outcomes (https://globalhandwashing.org).
Commission President-elect Ursula von der Leyen promised to deliver a European Green Deal in her first 100 days, including a continent-wide “Climate Law” to enshrine the goal of climate neutrality by 2050 into law, in order to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. Her plan is not only quite ambitious and urgent at the same time, but it also has the potential to grow the EU’s economy in the long run. The hand dryer market will benefit from new investments in innovation and research as well as from an update of EU’s industrial policy.
On 10 September, Commission President-elect Ursula von der Leyen has introduced her new team of commissioners. She tryed to balance out experience, poltical backgrounds, age, gender and last but not least, each member state needs a commissioner – size doesn`t matter. The org chart already indicates what becomes important: The New Green Deal will be addressed by Executive Vice President Frans Timmermans (Netherlands). Margrethe Vestager (Denmark) will also represent an important portfolio: Making Europe Fit for Digital Age.
The European Commission continously pushes the Circular Economy. In 2016 an Action Plan was adopeted. It has been fully completed in early 2019. The work will continue beyond 2019. In the long run, CE is also important for the electric hand drying business. Threrefore, we will update this topic frequently to also bring in eHA-know-how wherever necessary.
By conducting the preparatory study with regard to electric hand drying within the eco design framework, there were two stakeholder consultation meetings scheduled by ICF. The purpose of the meetings is to share draft reports and analysis and to collect feedback from stakeholders directly. Please register for the meeting on the 20th of November:
The study has been launched last year and will conclude in March 2020. Right now, it is open for Task 4 and 5. You`ll find the study on www.ecohanddryers.eu Click on “Documents”, there you see what questions need to be addressed. The 2nd stakeholder meeting during this prep study has also been announced:
ISSA Show North America taking place in Las Vegas is the top event for professionals in the cleaning industry and the one show for cleaning and maintenance solutions. November 18-21, manufacturers, distributors, facility managers, building contractors, and residential cleaners will come together for information sharing, relationship building, and product innovation.
This is, how Interclean announcing their next event in Amsterdam from 12 – 15 May 2020: “Cleaning has a vital impact on hygiene and health in the world. As the needs for cleaning and hygiene are constantly changing, Interclean is dedicated to sharing and facilitating everything a cleaner world needs.”
The colleagues from Intelligent Hand Dryers – namely Andrew Cameron – have collected again interesting facts with regard to the use of paper towels for drying hands in public places. We also present these facts collected in fall 2018 while saying thank you for enabling us to also share the seven facts. Did you know, e.g. that used paper towels cannot be recycled?
This post has been originally published by Intelligient Hand Dryers earlier this year. It wants to address several aspects of the dabate: