by Brianna Crandall — October 28, 2015—In conjunction with Global Handwashing Day (October 15) and in preparation for the upcoming cold and flu season, Cascades Tissue Group, a division of Cascades Canada, released the results of a recent survey the company conducted on the importance of restroom quality in U.S. schools.
The Cascades 2015 U.S. School Restroom Survey polled 1,010 students in the United States who have taken some combination of on-campus courses at a K-12, college, or graduate-level institution within the past 15 years.
A full 65% somewhat or strongly agree that restrooms help shape the perception of the quality of schools they have attended over the past 15 years. In fact, 60% of respondents recommend prospective students inspect restroom quality at schools they are visiting before making decisions to enroll.
An impressive 90% of those polled feel that proper hygiene is important to them as a student, and 93% say they wash and dry their hands every time they use the restroom. And while students generally gave their schools high marks for cleanliness (73% said the lavatories were at least somewhat clean), the majority (57%) feel their schools do not do enough overall to support on-campus restroom hygiene.
However, the respondents balanced those laudable statistics by admitting to using mobile devices (57%+) or working on their laptops (6%) in the bathroom. More than 14% have studied or read in the restroom, while nearly 12% said they have eaten there.
In a cautionary side note, 7% of recent students said they have knowingly drunk hand sanitizer when attending schools, corroborating recent reports of increased calls to U.S. Poison Control Centers over fears of alcohol poisoning.
Other key findings of Cascades’ 2015 U.S. School Restroom Survey:
- More than six out of every 10 survey takers reported having at some point avoided school restrooms altogether despite needing to use the facilities.
- More than 14% have gone so far as to clean a restroom at a school themselves because it was not up to their standards.
- When asked to cite their top complaint of restrooms at the schools they had attended, the number one gripe (39%) was restrooms being out of hand towels or toilet paper.
- More than two-thirds of the former or current students said they prefer paper towels to air dryers.
Thierry Trudel, Cascades Tissue Group vice president of marketing and communication, commented:
The data suggests that restrooms are really important parts of school experience. If people don’t feel the restrooms they’re in are clean and healthy, their natural tendency is to cut their cleaning time short — yet that’s precisely when they ought to be spending more time on hygiene.
Using products that are environmentally preferable matter to respondents as well; 88% of students agreed it was important to them while enrolled. In fact, 84% said they would be okay with using beige-colored toilet paper if they knew it was hygienic and eco-friendly. Cascades notes that paper towels, which are efficiently made from recycled contents, remain the World Health Organization’s recommended tool for drying hands.
Cascades Tissue Group sells single-use paper products such as hand towels, bathroom tissue, facial tissue, napkins, perforated roll towels, wipers and dispensers to schools and other away-from-home customers. The company introduced an unbleached, 100% recycled bathroom tissue in 2011 that has earned multiple product and innovation awards. Cascades is offering a free Smart Hygiene School Supply Kit while supplies are available.
