I’ve recently been working on reducing the amount of bathroom waste generated at my work. Before you get grossed out, when I say “bathroom waste” I mean paper towels. So I was excited to see at Yoga Bhoga a creative way for patrons to dry their hands: “Reduce, Reuse, Rotate”.

The director of Yoga Bhoga, Denise Payne, said that she hated to see so many paper towels used just to dry hands. She put together the poster that has a picture of a man standing in a yoga pose (how appropriate), and added arrows indicating that he is rotating his hands. A description below the picture clearly explains that the bathroom will no longer have paper towels in an effort to save the planet (or something like that).

The poster is visually appealing, funny, and appropriate for the venue. I started cracking up as I actually rotated my hands to dry them (I think next time I’ll just wipe them on my pants).

I imagined what would have gone through my head if I had simply met an empty paper-towel dispenser. Would I have been angry? Frustrated? Felt cheated out of my little paper napkin to remove the moisture from my freshly-washed hands? I’m not sure. What I felt when reading the poster was head-nodding. I nodded my head in agreement, and felt gratitude for everyone that takes steps to make waste minimization not only thoughtful, but fun.

Here's a picture from another one of Denise’s enviro-endeavor: reusable cups so that her yogis can drink hot- and cold-drinks without going through a ton of paper cups (but the cups flatten so that she can store them tidily in her smallish entry-space). It’s like origami for drinks! Folding and hydrating – again, nice fit for a yoga studio. Cheers to good, creative, appropriate solutions.