Heritage boat building training centre - our first students have graduated!
Having built the world’s first 100% recycled plastic sailing dhow in Lamu, the ancient home of dhow-building, our team had always hoped that one day we would be able to pass on our learnings, enhance and expand the practice of heritage boat-building from plastics.
This was the ambition behind the opening of the heritage boat building training centre under the UKAID SMEP Program that is coupled to our material recovery and recycling centre - which we piloted this year with a 12-week course hosting 10 students who are now set to take their skills into their communities having just completed this month.
The course was highly practical interspersed with solid educational modules designed to teach the students the ancient craft of dhow-building, environmental awareness, principles of circular economy and how to deploy innovative plastic recycling techniques. All in efforts to reduce plastic waste by restoring value to this precious material through creating a sustainable boat-building and traditional furniture industry, and reduce reliance on timber and fibre-glass.
It was piloted with students that included 3 young women who were the first females in Lamu County to undertake a marine vessel repair course, together with young polytechnic graduates and experienced boatbuilders.
The course was designed to practically explore the opportunities for circularity of plastics which meant learning about the environmental impact of mismanaged plastics, and a local heritage approach in product design to keep used plastics in circulation. It was key to ensure students understand the wider issues surrounding plastics as well as to develop creative design mindsets to expand innovative approaches to reducing plastic pollution across the archipelago.
During their course, the students successfully built the first traditional canoe from 100% post consumer plastics, made traditional Lamu furniture from plastic lumber, and learned to operate small-scale recycling machinery as well as industrial size recycling machines. Students also learned the critical steps to plastic waste management starting with understanding why single use plastics don’t make sense to how a material recovery facility operates at every level.
““Education is like light in the dark” ”
1. Laying the foundations:
environmental knowledge, plastics and dhows
2. Practical knowledge:
understanding properties of plastics, manufacturing and recycling processes
3. Design and engineering of new plastic boats:
designing and constructing the Dau la Mwao, our first 100% recycled plastic sailing canoe, through the lens of the circular economy
4. Community sensitisation about Impacts of plastic pollution:
Visiting the local butcher on an ordinary day, the students were shocked to find a cow that had ingested 35 kg of plastic. They visited the Lamu dumpsite to test the air quality to demonstrate the dangers to animal and human health. Activities included creating awareness posters, composing songs about pollution to explore ways to bring awareness to communities
The top highlights of the course included:
Ten students completed an 8 week course and are now finalising their 4 weeks apprenticeship
The students created and tested new products from plastic collected from the islands. They made planting pots, door knobs, coffee tables and chairs and classroom benches that could represent the future for these products in this region
Students completed the construction of a 100% recycled plastic traditional sailing canoe, made entirely from plastic lumber created from Lamu waste, complete with artistic sail
The boat even sailed during the Lamu cultural Festival
Students led a plastic recycling exhibit at the first Shela Bahari Yetu (Our Sea) Festival
These students are now strong ambassadors in their community delivering a strong message that single use plastics don’t make any sense
Another 100% recycled plastic boat has set sail!
The course culminated in a joyful event, when the students launched and sailed their own 100% recycled plastic sailing canoe ‘Dau La Mwao’ at the Lamu cultural Festival. The students were overhead proudly telling all the boats passing by that “this boat was made from ‘taka-taka’”, (kiswahili for “rubbish”). One student said that “soon, all the boats in Lamu will be as colourful as this one and the waters will be cleaner. “
The future of heritage boat building training?
This course was a pilot and there were many learnings along the way. It is now hoped that further iterations will be made for future intakes, and we are working with the Lamu Polytechnic to have the course vetted by the Kenyan National Authorities and be officially approved within the vocational training sector.
The graduates are already taking their learnings about circular economy innovation and boatbuilding into their own communities, and inspiring a new generation to create new sustainable boats, as well as becoming strong ambassadors for ending plastic pollution. As Kenya continues to embrace a circular economy at the policy level, we believe that a practical foundation for young people is critical for implementation and creating new job opportunities in a sustainable economy. A new skill base will provide students opportunities across Kenya that they would otherwise never have had.
Many of the students see this course as just the start of their journey to revolutionise how their community deals with plastics - As Jamil (carpenter) says "Every day I now tell different people what I learned about plastics and it's impacts on our environment and health - the microplastics we filtered in the Lamu harbour, the plastic we found in the cow, the low air quality we measured around the dumping sites - and try to get them to use alternatives"
And Halima (Polytechnic graduate) says "We have seen that taka ni mali ("waste is value") and you can do so many things with it. I want to learn and create more beautiful things with plastic for my community."
Thanks to this collaboration with the Lamu Polytechnic, Lamu Museum, University of Portsmouth and funding from the UKAID SMEP Program, we are one step closer to our goal - creating a new generation of sustainable dhow-builders and circular economy innovators - retaining indigenous practices of carpentry and boat-building , while preventing plastics from harming our environment.