On the Kenyan island of Lamu, a few hundred miles off the coast of Zanzibar, sits a colourful water vessel that looks more patchwork quilt than boat.
It's not just an eccentric paint job though, it's because the boat is actually made from recycled plastic and flip flops.
Images courtesy: Flipflopi
The Flipflopi as it's called is a life-size sailing boat, approximately 30 feet long. More importantly, it's constructed entirely from 10 tons of recycled plastics and around 30,000 flip flops. And on January 24, the boat will sail almost 500 km across the Indian Ocean from Lamu to Stone Town in Zanzibar.
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It's not just a gimmick or an eccentric billionaire project, this is actually an effort to raise awareness of the environmental damage single-use plastic can cause. Along the route of its first expedition, the boat will stop off at a few towns and cities, to teach locals how to recycle their own plastic.
In addition, the team didn't just gather the plastic from dump sites. They reportedly also cleaned up Lamu's beaches, using the plastic waste they found there to build the boat, along with local craftsmen. The keel, ribs, and core structure are built from the plastic, while the flip flops cover everything to make it look more appealing.
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"The main aim is to build on the story of this plastic revolution and to continue to highlight to the world that single-use plastic items are dreadful," project leader Dipesh Pabari told UN Environment. "It's an opportunity to engage and influence emerging consumer populations in the Indian Ocean region before single-use plastics and a throwaway culture become fully embedded, and to avoid what has happened in developed countries where they are now trying to reverse engineer consumption habits."
It's an important problem to tackle, considering plastic pollution doesn't JUST affect the environment. It not only kills the fish, but also gets into the catch we eat and other products as well.
Millions of tons of plastic enters the oceans each year, and we really need to at fast if we want a chance to save it.