Flipflopi is the world’s first sailing boat made entirely from plastic waste and flip-flops collected from beaches and towns on the Kenyan coast. It works to raise people’s awareness of plastic pollution in the oceans and invites them to rethink their consumption behavior towards single-use plastics.

In early 2016, Ben Morison, manager of an online travel agency, was swimming in the warm waters of the Indian Ocean in Zanzibar. On the beach, a multitude of flip-flops….The crazy idea of the Flipflopi project was born.

Ben and his ally Dipesh Pabari, set out in search of a master dhow builder, the traditional boat that has been sailing on the Indian Ocean for over 1000 years. They met Ali Skanda in Lamu.

Ali comes from a family of carpenters in Lamu that traces its roots back to the very first settlers arriving on Lamu in the 1300’s. His father and grandfather were Dhow builders. Ali has taken up the baton admirably and one of his boat is settled in the National Museum in Washington DC.

Armed with their deep environmental awareness and a strong desire for change, the trio, joined by a team of determined volunteers, launched the basis of the plastic revolution.

But, of course, the project is not just about building a plastic boat. The project aims to initiate, from Africa, a plastic revolution throughout the Indian Ocean in order to contribute to the global movement against single-use plastics and to involve consumers throughout the Indian Ocean who hold the keys of the future health of the oceans.

The message is simple: single use plastic does not make sense and plastic deserves a second life. We aspire to a world without single use plastics and we want to share this message with as many people as possible and as far away as possible. 

According to entreprenanteafrique