Sharjah: Cutting down on wastage could help lower bills, bring shopping discounts and earn you fashion compliments, as the Green Middle East environment show held this week in Sharjah revealed.
A home kit meant to save water consumption — and bills — was on demo at the exhibition stand of the Sharjah Water and Electricity Authority.
The conservation kit includes add-ons for taps and shower heads that reduce water consumption without affecting the flow or pressure. Using the small fixtures can mean 40 per cent lower water bills, a Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority (Sewa) employee said.
The version for apartments costs Dh100 while the villa-use version is Dh150.
Reward scheme
Another reward scheme on show was a Reverse Vending Machine that takes in waste and gives out shopping coupons. The RVM gives points for chucking in plastic bottles and aluminium cans, which can then be redeemed for shopping discounts.
Details of the scheme will be revealed soon, according to project organiser Bee'ah, a waste management company in Sharjah.
You can soon save the ecosystem in style — a UK firm that makes clothes from discarded plastic bottles is planning to set up shop in the UAE.
DGrade Clothing turns the bottles into polyester wear. The plastic is shredded and heated in a chemical process to make fine-spun polyester yarn and woven into ‘cloth.'
It takes about three bottles to make a T-shirt and 30 to make a pair of shorts. A solution is added in the manufacturing process to make the clothes more breathable and cooler.
"There's no need to iron them, guys love that," said Kris Barber, director of DGrade.
He said the UAE generated 1.5b units of 500ml plastic drinking water bottles in 2009 and the figure is estimated to have risen 15 per cent since then.
"Plastic was never made to be thrown away, it is meant for recycling. But few companies do it because it's an expensive process."
