A Kenyan dhow made entirely of recycled plastic is due to be launched on Saturday September 15
Environmentalist and master dhow builder Captain Ali Skanda has completed the dhow made entirely from plastic waste that has washed up around his home on the Kenyan coast. In June 2016 environmentalists and Ali Skanda decided to try and build a boat entirely from plastic collected from the once pristine beaches and roadsides in Kenya. Two years later, after using over ten tonnes of plastic waste including thousands of repurposed flipflops – the team have succeeded. Built on the island of Lamu using traditional dhow builders and techniques, the world’s very first 100% recycled plastic dhow is set for launch.  The project has had the support of many of the local Lamu community as well as several schools which have followed the buikd as well, inspiring their pupils, hopefully to be conservation minded themselves as they grow up.
The next step is to sail the dhow to Zanzibar sharing the recycling message along the East African coast, talking to law makers, companies and communities about what can be done to reduce plastic use and to stop plastic ending up in the environment. There is also a plan to build an even bigger dhow.
Project leader Ben Morrison says: “We’d like to remind everyone that – happy though we are… this has never really been just about building a boat… we simply wanted to to demonstrate that single use plastic doesn’t make sense.  So as we now set sail on the next part of the our journey – we hope people around the world are inspired to find their own ways to repurpose ‘already-used’ plastic.

“Exactly one year ago, Kenya launched the world’s most drastic plastic bags ban – imposing some of the stiffest fines seen. But banning single use plastic is only part of the solution – celebrating the people who are finding ways to give existing plastic a second life feels like it offers us all some hope amongst the doom and gloom of the sea of plastic waste that is affecting our oceans.”

Watch the seven minute film on the building of the dhow:

 

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More at www.theflipflopi.com

You can donate to the dhow project HERE