Kenya launches first ever sailing boat made out of recycled plastic
Launch of Flip-Flop dhow at Lamu Island, Kenya
Lamu Island of Kenyan has marked history on recycling plastic on 15th September 2018, by sailing on boat built entirely of recycled plastic. They have been collecting plastics from the ocean and the surroundings through their clean-up campaign since last year.
In order to curtail the menace of plastic to the environment, the Kenyan government has imposed the world’s toughest law against plastic bags, stating offenders, including producers, retailers, and ordinary users, to face imprisonment for up to four years or fines of USD 40,000.
Boat under construction
Mostly all the plastic wastes are flowing to the ocean, which has been threatening the marine life all around the world. We have seen plastic bags strangling turtles, suffocating seabirds and filling the stomachs of dolphins and whales.
The project is aptly named the Flipflopi Project, due to its construction using thousands of repurposed flip-flops and ocean plastic collected on beach clean-ups along the Kenya coast
The dhow is of nine meter length, built from over 10 tonnes of plastic waste.
Launch of the dhow coincided with international World Cleanup Day, during which environmental groups carry out activities to tackle pollution.
Raw-materials for the boat
The boat is a with a colourful exterior, including red, green, blue and yellow, due to the re-purposed flip flops used to cover the hull and other parts.
“We hope people around the globe are inspired by our beautiful multicolored boat and find their own ways to re-purpose already-used plastics,” said Ben Morrison, the founder of the FlipFlopi project.
Morrison, who spent a decade building a travel business focused on Africa, turned to constructing colorful boats in 2016, when he noticed alarming pollution along the Kenyan coast.
The team used Kenyan facilities and technologies to recycle the plastic waste, and was led by local boat builder Ali Abdalla Skanda.
“We are proud to be a guide to the world and its inhabitants during this vital time of challenge for our ocean environment,” Skanda said, adding they had received support from around the world as they built the boat.
Najib Balala, the Kenyan tourism minister, praised the team when he attended the launch at Lamu Island, a protected world heritage site popular with local and foreign holidaymakers, on Kenya’s far north coastline.
Tourism is one of the major revenue earners for Kenya and officials in Nairobi are keen to protect beach resorts along the coastline.