Thursday, February 26, 2015

Anniversary Green Giveaway!

This month Green Living in Dubai completed 6 years! To say THANK YOU to our readers we are giving away 4 Bagoto Car Trash Bags to TWO lucky winners! Click here, to read why Bagoto is listed in our Green Directory.

This Giveaway will end on 4th March at 9pm and Two lucky winners will be announced.
To enter this Green Giveaway, you need to like our Facebook Page and enter your details by clicking below image. If you have already liked our Facebook page, just enter your details in the form (You have greater chances of winning ;-)).

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1VHSFJ9yo2Ur8dhGibal1qXxRrec6xr7behikZ7aaKxY/viewform?usp=send_form

All the best dear readers! Thank you for supporting us for 6 long years!!!
 

Sunday, February 15, 2015

Green Playdough

Hi all mommy readers, I have found out a green product which your kids are going to love!
Ruhaan loves playing with play dough, which kid doesn't like. My mom tells me when I was a kid even I used to play with roti dough while my mom made roties. But now a days these colorful play dough are so convenient for us to give to our children anytime and great tool to teach them colors, shapes, words and what not.

http://instagram.com/greenlivingindubai/
Ruhaan and me made grapes out of My Baby Jay, yummy? :)

We make all our favorite fruits out of play dough, but on weekends Ruhaan's dad makes cars, trucks and many creative things. So you see, not just Ruhaan but whole of our family loves making things out of play dough :-)! But of course vibrant colored play dough bought from market contains chemicals, colors which can be harmful, so you need to wash your kid's hands after every use. Having meal time while playing with dough is not possible at all.

But since we started using 'My Baby Jay'; a naturally made, nontoxic homemade play dough; my concerns of my son's safety reduced significantly. Adriana Baba founder of My Baby Jay is a KG teacher and knows pros and cons about playing with dough. When her son was too young to play with store bought dough, she decided to make her own play dough and that is how My Baby Jay is born. This nontoxic dough made with love of a mother can last for 2-3 months. Adriana shared the ingredients with us, which are Flour, salt, water, oil, food colouring, vegetable oil and cream of tartar. They come in containers of 25g, 110g and 1kg at very reasonable price. Check their facebook page for prices and delivery information here.
You don't need to store these containers in fridge, we just need to store the dough in it's container and seal it after every use. Adriana tells us, The playdough has been slightly coated with oil to preserve it. It is all natural and will disappear into the playdough once the children play with it. You can find their amazing collections of play dough recent fruits series, past Christmas series on their facebook page (listed above). They take customized order too, this play dough can definitely be 'green return favors' for a 'green birthday' or a 'green gift' for birthday boy or girl!
http://instagram.com/greenlivingindubai/
We tried these!

We got to try 2 vanillas white, blue and a purple grape flavor. The smell of those are so good, I couldn't resist but dig my hands in those along with my son ;). Our experience of using it was awesome, it is as good as store bought one. Clean, safe, Not sticky at all, doesn't get dry quickly and you can make amazing stuff out of it. Of course you can't get those vibrant colors in home made dough, but you are not compromising with your baby's safety by letting him play with natural, nontoxic dough. We are totally in love with this product after we tried and tested it. It is truly nontoxic, natural play dough and deserves place in out Green Directory! I would recommend all the mamas out their to try using it and you will never buy it from store again. My Baby Jay definitely 'sends love in each playdough'!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/My-Baby-Jay/584688264930215


 

Thursday, February 5, 2015

Keep Your Car and Roads Clean!

Hello readers, how many times you are irritated by seeing somebody throwing things out of their car windows on road?  I guess a lot of times. And do you know if one gets caught; there is 500 dirham fine by Dubai Municipality for littering anywhere in Dubai?
If you have experienced somebody else's tissue stuck in your car's windshield or wiper when you are driving, (which is generally thrown out of the car next to you) I know how annoying it is! And of course if you have thrown things from your running car, you know what happens, it flies back to your car like a boom rang! There are many times we think why don't people just keep their garbage in car and then throw it in waste bin once they park their car. But I know people don't want to make their cars dirty, which I understand. If I keep plastic bags in my car for waste, they start emitting VOCs and pollutes air inside my car, mostly during long summer months. But when I started using Bagoto, reusable waste bag for car; I found a practical solution to this problem. With Bagoto, you can keep your car clean and you can keep your city clean too!

This car waste bag just doesn't keep our environment clean and our cars tidy but we can reuse it several times, we just need to empty in main trash after use. This makes it a green product and so it is eligible to get place in our Green Directory. According to Bagoto, It is made up of recyclable non-woven textile  material. This material is mainly composed of Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET), which is included in the risk list of substances under the European REACH regulation The non-woven is by nature a clean material, with low density, that has very low CO2 emission when incinerated and is not ecotoxic. This definitely is a better solution over keeping plastic bags (even bio degradable ones) in car, because plastic bags can not be stored in vehicle exposed to direct harsh sun, which is commonplace in UAE. Bagoto can be washed few times if it gets dirty (I would suggest hand wash) and can be reused even more times. When the bag is not reusable after many uses, it can be thrown in to garbage bins, no special disposable process requires for it.

My experience of using this bag is very good till now. It is so convenient to have this bag hanging on to gear lever of car while you are driving. You can throw almost everything you (don't) want, right from chewing gum, tissues, used straws, candy wrappers etc. I just made sure to empty it every time as I don't want to pollute the air quality inside my car. It is very handy and it's shape makes it very easy to use. This product comes in pack of 10, in different vibrant colors. By end of week I started loving my Bagoto. You could imagine this waste bag can be such a blessing for a mother driving through busy streets of Dubai, stuck in traffic jam; when her toddler is very cranky in back seat because he wants banana right now. Now she manages to gives banana to him, he eats and she throws the peel in Bagoto without worrying about any mess in car. Piece of mind for all the parties involved! :)

Bagoto is founded in France and these bags are popular there, but 'Keep It Clean' has made them available in UAE. Find more about the Keep It Clean here. Company has recently launched this product. Their other products include MrBin and Carbag. These are paper products, MrBin is cone shaped paper container which can be inserted in sand on beach and you can collect your waste in it and throw it in main trash when you leave the beach. This is one more good product which helps to keep our beaches clean. Keep it clean also offers one interesting and essential recycling service, will write about it after I tried and tested it.

Till then try Bagoto and keep your cars clean!

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Dubai's Car Free Day

4th February is UAE's National Environment Day, to celebrate it Dubai Municipality has initiated Car free day. Today is 6th Car free day, the goal is to reduce carbon emission and promote usage of public transport. Dubai Municipality has kept their parking closed for a day which will motivate their staff to use public transport.

In 2010, Dubai joined the global Car-Free Day campaigns, devoting a day to ditch cars and opt for public transport in an attempt to reduce carbon emission and environmental pollution. While the first edition of the initiative saw almost 1,500 employees and officials of the civic body switching to the Metro and buses, other governmental departments and ministries joined the drive over the years.
In 2014, almost 7,000 employees from 65 government and private organizations participated in the internationally appreciated green campaign of Dubai, contributing to the reduction of 20 tonnes of carbon emission during the day of the event, according to the municipality.

We are joining this year too by not using our car. Green Living in Dubai is giving shout out to all our Dubai readers, Let's Walk...Stop Driving!