Turning the tide on plastic waste: Kenya’s Lamu Islanders upcycled washed up litter into boats

On the coastal island of Lamu, off Kenya’s east coast, workers are turning plastic waste into furniture, even boats. Lamu is contending with mounds of plastic waste—some washed up on its beaches, others created by its own population. “We are collecting the waste plastic around Lamu archipelago, and we process those ones to make boats, furniture, and also doing a lot of research on what we can do with the plastic,” explains Ali Skanda, co-founder of the Flipflopi Project, an NGO founded in 2016. The Flipflopi Project receives grants from other NGOs which they then use to buy plastic waste from locals. After it arrives at their facility, workers sort it into different types and colors. It’s then crushed, washed, dried, melted, then molded into different colors, shapes and sizes. “After pre-sorting, we have our sorters, and they categorize into different types and colors. So, they keep plastic into types and colors, separately,” explains Skanda. From there, plastic waste is upcycled into furniture and dhow boats. But Skanda says recycling also comes with challenges. He says nowadays, plastic manufacturers are adding additives to plastics, which makes it more difficult to recycle. Elsewhere, some plastics may be degraded by the sun and lose quality. Since 2019, the NGO has been sailing Flipflopi, claimed to be the world’s first recycled plastic sailing dhow. They’ve gone on expeditions, including sailing from the Indian Ocean to Lake Victoria, and have launched a further two boats made using recycled plastic waste. “We are doing this just for the world to understand that plastic is not waste,” says Skanda. “We can add value and make something like furniture, things like this. And more others, we are making dhows.” Each day, the equivalent of 2,000 garbage trucks full of plastic are dumped into the world’s oceans, rivers and lakes, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). People are increasingly breathing, eating and drinking tiny plastic particles. Plastic production continues to ramp up globally and is projected to double or triple by 2050 if nothing changes.  This article was provided by The Associated Press.