These have been around forever. I got yelled at by an old lady for not using them back in the early 70's.
My sister and I were with my grandma, visiting a friend of hers. Both of us (at separate times) went to the bathroom. The lady went in there after us and came out and yelled at us. She had fancy soaps and decorative disposable hand towels out and NEITHER of us used them. We both thought it would be better manners not to use her fancy stuff and dried our hands on our clothes. Boy did we get a lecture!
Oh, those would be great when someone gets sick. I thought our daughter had pink eye, and just in case (before we could get to the doctor), I was constantly washing the towels in her bathroom. Would've loved to have had those things then. Or when my family comes to visit, again, I am constantly washing hand towels. It sure is ugly packaging, but sometimes I gotta go with substance over style.
Ok, I confess. We put out disposable guest towels to save the decorative towels here too. They're individual though, not on a roll, and sit in a little flat rectangular basket on the vanity designed for just this purpose.
The girls' friends joke it makes them feel "special". Their idea of going green is eating pickles...