Dhow made from plastic waste to sail along Africa's coast

A traditional dhow sailing boat made entirely from plastic trash collected from Kenya's beaches and towns will make its maiden voyage later this month from Lamu in Kenya to Zanzibar in Tanzania – a 500-kilometer expedition, stopping at communities along the way to change minds about plastic waste.

The Flipflopi is a first-of-its-kind 9-meter sailing boat made from 10 tons of discarded plastic. It has been 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 re-used.

The dhow was launched in late 2018 in Lamu and has now partnered with UN 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 Clean Seas campaign, said the Flipflopi is proof 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. 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," she said.

Professor Judi Wakhungu, a FlipFlopi board member, said the FlipFlopi project is playing a vital role in helping the public at large 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 other initiatives seldom do," she said.

Only 9 percent of the 9 billion tons of plastic the world has produced has been recycled. The overwhelming majority of plastics — including plastic drinking bottles, plastic bottle caps, food wrappers, plastic grocery bags, plastic lids, straws and stirrers and foam takeaway containers — are designed to be thrown away after a single use, ultimately ending up in landfills and the environment.

In the recently published "Legal Limits on Single-Use Plastics and Microplastics: A Global Review of National Laws and Regulations", UN Environment found 127 out of 192 countries reviewed, or about two-thirds, have adopted some form of legislation to regulate plastic bags.

Additionally, the report stated 27 countries have enacted legislation banning either specific products, materials 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 educating and engaging the public.

The project was founded in 2016 to bring home the impact plastic is having on marine ecosystems, how this affects us, and most important of all — what can be done about it.

Ben Morison, the project co-founder, was inspired to create a visually engaging "Plastic Revolution" campaign after witnessing the shocking quantities of plastic on Kenya's beaches, an area where he spent much of his childhood.

"The Flipflopi project has always been about encouraging change in a positive way, making people smile first and then sharing the very simple message single-use plastics really don't make sense," Morison said.

He said they used only locally available resources and low-tech solutions to create the Flipflopi 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 find their own ways to repurpose ‘already-used' plastics," he said.

The Flipflopi project team had to pioneer new techniques to craft the various components of the boat. The plastic waste was melted, shaped and carved by a team of traditional dhow boat builders exactly as is done with wood.

Every element of the boat was constructed by hand, and the whole boat was clad in colourful sheets of recycled flip-flops. These flip-flops were collected during cleanups on Lamu's beaches, where they were among the most prolific items found.

"We are proud to have built the world's first sailing boat made from recycled plastic," said Ali Skanda, the lead boat builder. He added, "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 January 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 with Conservation Music at the Busara Music Festival, engaging festival goers in the fight against marine plastic pollution through music and culture.

In Africa, marine debris represents a potential threat to food security, economic development and viability of marine ecosystems.

With over 12 million people on the continent engaged in fisheries, their livelihood is directly affected by marine pollution, and the proportion of protein intake from fish is high across Africa.

During the Blue Economy Conference hosted by Kenya last month, governments committed to protect oceans, seas, lakes and rivers.

The Flipflopi-Clean Seas Expedition comes a month before the next UN Environment Assembly, where more than 150 ministers of environment will gather in Nairobi. The assembly is the world's highest-level decision-making body on the environment.

Leading up to the event, UN Environment is zeroing in on the urgent need for sustainable consumption and production and innovative solutions for environmental challenges through its "solve different" campaign, urging member states, the private sector and citizens to rethink the choices they make in their everyday lives.