The Flipflopi Project

We are an East African circular economy movement that in 2018 built the world’s first 100% recycled plastic sailing dhow. Built from 10 tonnes of beach plastic, it was covered in 30,000 pieces of discarded flipflops collected from Kenyas beaches, hence its name 'The Flipflopi'.

We employ a “full-systems” approach to beating plastic pollution through

(1) education and awareness campaigns,

(2) waste-plastic innovation rooted in heritage, and

(3) influencing legislative change to ban single-use plastics.

Over the course of three expeditions, the Flipflopi sailing boat has proved to be an exceptional campaign tool to catalyse engagement and action all three of the above focus areas. Watch our latest video, "Stubborn Optimism - A Plastic Revolution" The 2019 Lamu to Zanzibar expedition, conducted in partnership with UN Environment, brought international media attention - 890 million people saw our message, we hosted the presidents and government ministers on the boat, and played a central role in national plastic bag bans that came into effect in both Kenya and Tanzania shortly after our campaign.

In 2020 Flipflopi Co-founder was awarded Kenya’s highest civilian honour for his contribution to preserving Kenya's Swahili culture and his environmental campaigning.

In 2022, Flipflopi was awarded the FCDO’s prestigious SMEP Grant to tackle marine ecosystem health challenges which led to the creation of an innovative community-centered programme that is ‘closing the loop’ on waste plastic in the Lamu Archipelago (on the coast of northern Kenya) by combining indigenous knowledge of boatbuilding with modern innovation. In a 24 month perirod we have collected 288 tonnes of plastic from the enviroment within the Lamu region.

In 2022 we set up a Heritage Boat Building centre that runs pioneering classes teaching Dhow building and traditional craftsmanship to mixed gender classes of young people from Lamu County. Students on these 12 week courses have built everything from ornately carved traditional Lamu chairs to Swahili Dhows – all from recycled plastic lumber instead of wood.

In 2023, The Flipflopi team met UK Monarch King Charles whilst on a visit to Kenya, presenting him with an elegant traditional Swahili throne made entirely from recycled beach plastic. It made headlines around the world.

To date Flipflopi activity has principally taken place within Kenya, and to a lesser extent, in neighbouring countries Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda. In 2025 we are turning our attention to globally scaling the many valuable lessons we have learned about how to create a circular economy for plastic waste.

In 2025 we begin our most ambitious campaign yet – first we will construct a 120 tonne, 24 metre long traditional Lamu Dhow (again, built entirely from recycled plastic) and then we embark on a global expedition that will convene the action we need globally to see a WORLD WITHOUT SINGLE USE PLASTIC.