In 2016, a group of entrepreneurs, boat builders, artists, and activists joined forces in Kenya to launch The Flipflopi Project.

The project aims to raise awareness about plastic pollution by building a traditional dhow sailing boat entirely out of plastic waste. The resulting dhow is 9m long and made up of 30,000 flip-flops collected from beaches in Lamu, Kenya.

Backed by the UN Environment’s Clean Seas initiative, the future plan is for the Flipflopi to a complete 3-4 month expedition from her home Port in Lamu, Kenya to Zanzibar and eventually Capetown.  En-route will be organized beach clean ups and the Flipflopi team will visit marine conservation and plastic recycling initiatives along the coast, community groups, students, and government officials with the goal of inspiring people to think differently about single use plastics and the potential for re-purposing plastic waste.

For more info, see  Flipflopi and unenvironment.org