The United Nations will no longer provide paper towels in restrooms servicing office spaces in its headquarters in New York City and has encouraged more use of the electric hand-dryers installed in these areas. The step, announced on Dec. 10 in a UN-systemwide email, is the latest in a series of small and big changes that the organization has been making this year to cut costs as it grapples with a crippling financial crisis.
In May, prices at UN headquarters cafes and the main cafeteria, all managed by outside companies, went up five percent to “help reduce the subsidy currently paid by the UN” on food, the organization said then. A few weeks later, it also closed one eatery, Café de la Paix, to save money.
“Part of the reason we have to have these savings is not about the money going to other things,” said Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesperson to Secretary-General António Guterres, to reporters on Dec. 10. “It is because we need to have our basic functions continue as we have had a lack of reliable funding for many years now from member states. We have to respond in different ways and so that’s where the savings go.”
In October, PassBlue reported a few days’ sick-out by UN security personnel, who were protesting cuts in their allowances. Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson to Guterres, said the day after PassBlue’s article was published that the proposed reductions in allowances to the security staff were meant to lower overtime costs incurred by the organization.
The officers have since returned to work on the assurance that their allowances and privileges would remain intact, some of them told PassBlue.
These overall changes are happening amid steeper cuts and layoffs. In October, Guterres proposed to the General Assembly’s budget committee that he would cut staffing by 18.8 percent — translating to a reduction of 2,681 posts — from the 14,275 approved for 2025.
The original reform plan, introduced in March 2025 and called the UN80 initiative, had proposed up to 20 percent UN-wide cuts in response to large foreign aid cuts by the United States government to international aid and other operations. Many UN agencies who had relied heavily on US funding have been forced to reduce staff and programs in the wake of the USAID demise.
This week, the UN also said it would halve the amount of money it requests from donor countries in 2026 to support its humanitarian work, another result of US and European governments slashing of foreign aid. Tom Fletcher, the UN humanitarian relief chief, said the goal was to raise $23 billion to provide aid to 87 million people globally, about half the $47 billion that it requested in 2025.
As to the paper towels, the UN Department of Operational Support (DOS) said in the Dec. 10 email to staff and other occupants of the headquarters that the transition to using “high-speed” commercial hand-dryers will save the organization “over” $100,000 annually, barely a drop in the $1.87 billion owed by member states. But it appears that paper towels will still be stocked in UN restrooms used by the public.
The escalating financial crisis that has hit the UN was triggered by the US suspension of its annual assessed dues to the UN and chronic payment delays from other member states, although China and Russia, two large donors, recently met their annual obligations. Russia, for example, just paid its approximately $72 million in annual dues, bringing the total of countries that are fully paid to 146 by the deadline of Dec. 31. The US alone accounts for $1.5 billion of the outstanding balance and has not indicated whether it will pay it or not.
Haq, the deputy spokesperson, said UN “management has indicated after looking at the numbers” that more use of commercial hand-dryers is cheaper than restocking paper towels. The DOS memo also said towels “remain the primary sources of clogged toilets at UNHQ, which are costly and time-consuming to repair and can result in unsanitary conditions until addressed.”
The UN also justified the change by saying that the World Health Organization and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “recognize electric hand dryers as safe and effective methods for hand drying.”
Haq emphasized in an email to PassBlue that the dryers have a lower carbon footprint than recycled paper towels, significantly reducing the environmental effect of daily operations.
The change, he said, is “expected to take effect shortly.”
We welcome your comments on this article. What are your thoughts on eliminating paper towels in UN restrooms?
Related Posts
Damilola Banjo is an award-winning staff reporter for PassBlue who has covered a wide range of topics, from Africa-centered stories to gender equality to UN peacekeeping and US-UN relations. She also oversees all video production for PassBlue. She was a Dag Hammarskjold fellow in 2023 and a Pulitzer Center postgraduate fellow in 2021. She was part of the BBC Africa team that produced the Emmy-nominated documentary, “Sex for Grades.” In addition, she worked for WFAE, an NPR affiliate in Charlotte, N.C. Banjo has a master’s of science degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and an undergraduate degree from the University of Ibadan in Nigeria.
