Boat made from plastic waste sets sail
A boat made entirely from plastic trash will sail Africa’s east coast between Kenya and Tanzania to raise awareness of the plastic waste problem.
The FlipFlopi, a 9-meter sailboat, is made from 10 tons of discarded plastics collected from beaches and towns in Kenya. It will sail 500 kilometers later this month from Lamu in Kenya to Zanzibar in Tanzania, and stop along the way to change the mindset about plastic waste.
The boat was built by a team calling for a plastic revolution to stem the flow of up to 12 million tons of plastic waste dumped into the world’s oceans each year and to highlight the potential for plastic waste to be recycled.
The dhow was launched in late 2018 in Lamu and has now partnered with the United Nations Environment’s Clean Seas campaign, which engages governments, the public and the private sector in the fight against marine plastic pollution.
Nine African countries have already signed onto the campaign, promising to take action to tackle marine pollution.
Joyce Msuya, acting executive director of the UN Environment’s Clean Seas campaign, said the Flipflopi proved that people can live differently.
“It is a reminder of the urgent need for us to rethink the way we manufacture, use and manage single-use plastic,” she said.
“Kenya has demonstrated tremendous leadership in addressing the epidemic of single-use plastic by banning plastic bags. We are clearly moving in the right direction but we need a drastic shift in consumption patterns and waste management practices across the world.”
Professor Judi Wakhungu, a Flipflopi board member, said the project is playing a vital role in teaching the public to think about plastic differently.
“They have a colorful and innovative way of talking about the issue — and their message is really hitting home, reaching parts of the population that other initiatives seldom do,” she said.
Only 9 percent of the 9 billion tons of plastic the world has ever produced has been recycled. The overwhelming majority of plastics — including drinking bottles, bottle caps, food wrappers, grocery bags, lids, straws and stirrers, and foam take-away containers — are designed to be thrown away after a single use, ultimately ending up in landfills and the ocean.
In the recently published “Legal Limits on Single-Use Plastics and Microplastics: A Global Review of National Laws and Regulations”, UN Environment found that 127 out of 192 countries reviewed (about twothirds) have adopted some form of legislation to regulate plastic bags.
Additionally, the report stated that 27 countries have enacted legislation banning either specific products (for example plates, cups, straws, packaging), materials (for example polystyrene) or production levels.
Nearly two years after Kenya introduced the world’s toughest laws on single-use plastic bags, the Flipflopi project is playing a vital role in engaging the public at large in thinking about plastic differently.
The project was founded in 2016 to send a message about the impact that plastic is having on marine ecosystems, how this affects us, and most importantly, what we can do about it.
Ben Morison, the project co-founder, was inspired to create a visually engaging plastic revolution campaign after witnessing what he described as the shocking quantities of plastics on Kenya’s beaches.
He said they used only locally available resources and low-tech solutions to create the boat, enabling their techniques and ideas to be copied without any barriers.
“We hope people around the globe will be inspired by our beautiful multicolored boat and will find their own ways to repurpose ‘already-used’ plastics,” he said
The plastic waste was melted, shaped and carved by the team of traditional dhow boat builders exactly as they would do with wood.
Every single element of the boat was constructed by hand, and the whole boat was clad in colorful sheets of recycled flip-flops, collected from Lamu’s beach cleanups.
“We are proud to have built the world’s first sailing boat made from recycled plastics,” said Ali Skanda, the lead boat builder. “The next challenge is to set sail and inspire people up and down Africa’s coastline and beyond to look at plastic waste not as trash but as a resource that can be collected and used.”
The expedition will start in Lamu on Jan 24 and the boat is expected to arrive in Stone Town in Zanzibar on Feb 7, where the Flipflopi and Clean Seas teams will meet up at the Busara Music Festival, engaging festival goers in the fight against marine plastic pollution through music and culture.