In Lamu, Kenya, a team built a sailing dhow from 10 tonnes of recycled plastic waste, clad in 30,000 flip-flops, and now campaigns for laws against single-use plastics.
The Wave that Started It All
On the shores of Lamu, a UNESCO World Heritage site on Kenya's coast, a quiet revolution is happening, one flip-flop at a time.
The Flipflopi Project was born from a simple question: what if plastic waste, instead of choking marine life, could be transformed into something beautiful? Conceived by Ben Morison in 2015 and built with master dhow craftsman Ali Skanda and campaigner Dipesh Pabari, the project now runs a plastic recovery and recycling centre for Lamu County, and collected 108 tonnes of plastic in 2025.
>> "kila kitu inawezekana, Everything is possible."
Their flagship creation is Flipflopi Ndogo, a traditional Swahili sailing dhow over nine metres long, made from ten tonnes of plastic waste collected on the Kenyan coast and clad in 30,000 flip-flops. Since 2019 it has made three expeditions, including a circuit of Lake Victoria, to deliver one message: kila kitu inawezekana.
The boat became a floating classroom. Communities learned about plastic sorting, circular economy models, and the direct link between coastal waste and the suffering of sea turtles, dolphins, and coral reefs. Flipflopi's heritage training centre trained 107 people in 2025.
Where Plastic Pollution Ends, Conservation Begins
Their influence has reached policy too. With the Africa Legal Network, the project published a draft bill to ban unnecessary single-use plastics in Kenya and East Africa, and in 2025 the East African Community Single-Use Plastics Bill was approved for formal drafting. It also holds a seat on Kenya's National Plastics Action Partnership steering committee.
The work continues, and the turtles of Lamu are watching.
_Sources: The Flipflopi Project, "About the boat" and "Our story", theflipflopi.com. The Flipflopi Project, "Ten Years to Prove a Point: Inside Flipflopi's 2025 Annual Impact Report", 11 August 2026._