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World’s first-of-its-kind 9-metre sailing boat made from 10 tonnes of discarded plastic set to make 500km maiden voyage from Lamu to Zanzibar

The FlipFlopi, a first-of-its-kind 9-metre sailing boat made from 10 tonnes of discarded plastic is set to make its maiden voyage later this month from Lamu, Kenya to Zanzibar, Tanzania.
  • The expedition will start in Lamu on January 24 and the boat is expected to arrive in Stone Town, Zanzibar on February 7th.
  • The Project was founded by Ben Morison in 2016 after seeing the shocking quantities of plastic on Kenya’s beaches where he spent much of his childhood.
  • The dhow which was launched in late 2018 in Lamu has partnered with UN Environment’s Clean Seas campaign, which engages governments, the public and the private sector in the fight against marine plastic pollution.

The FlipFlopi, a first-of-its-kind 9-metre sailing boat made from 10 tonnes of discarded plastic is set to make its maiden voyage later this month from Lamu, Kenya to Zanzibar, Tanzania, a 500-kilometre expedition stopping at communities along the way to change mindsets about plastic waste.

The traditional dhow sailing boat made entirely from plastic trash collected from Kenya’s beaches and towns were built by a team calling for a #PlasticRevolution 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 expedition will start in Lamu on January 24 and the boat is expected to arrive in Stone Town, Zanzibar on February 7th, where the Flipflopi and Cleanseas teams will meet up with Conservation Music at the Busara Music Festival, engaging festival goers in the fight against marine plastic pollution through music and culture.

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The FlipFlopi is living proof that we 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,” Joyce Msuya, UN Environment’s Acting Executive Director said.

The dhow which was launched in late 2018 in Lamu has partnered with UN Environment’s Clean Seas campaign, which engages governments, the public and the private sector in the fight against marine plastic pollution.

“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,” said Msuya.

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Nine African countries have already signed onto the campaign, promising to take action to tackle marine pollution.

Nearly 2 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 Flipflopi Project is playing a vital role in engaging the public at large in thinking about plastic differently, they have a colourful 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,” said Flipflopi board member Professor Judi Wakhungu and former Kenya Minister for Environment.

The Project was founded by Ben Morison in 2016 after seeing the shocking quantities of plastic on Kenya’s beaches where he spent much of his childhood.

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

To create the Flipflopi boat we used only locally available resources and low-tech solutions, enabling our techniques and ideas to be copied without any barriers. So we hope people around the globe are inspired by our beautiful multicoloured boat and find their own ways to repurpose ‘already-used’ plastics,”

Following the completion of the Clean Seas expedition – the Flipflopi boat will be exhibited in at the upcoming UN Environment Assembly, in Nairobi Kenya (11th to 15th March), which gathers more than 150 ministers of environment.

The assembly is the world’s highest-level decision-making body on the environment, and in 2019 has the theme: “Innovative solutions for environmental challenges and sustainable consumption and production”

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