Plastik Talks: ‘Less talk, more action’

Flipflopi has never been just a project or just a boat, but a large network of like-minded ‘plastic revolutionaries’ working across East Africa and the world. We have seen that our expeditions ‘pour fuel on existing sparks’, creating momentum for existing movements, and bringing us new partners along the way.

Plastik Talks is one such partner - set up by Arinitwe Peter, a Ugandan ‘artivist’ who we met on the Lake Victoria expedition in 2021. Since 2021, Plastik Talks have been focussing on bringing more responsible waste management and plastic education to the some of the communities living in ghettos in Kampala, using art and creativity to engage people, with a particular focus on women and unemployed youth.

We met up with Arinitwe to ask him what they are up to and what impact they are seeing on the ground.

Can you tell us about Plastik Talks and the motivation behind your motto: less talk, more action

Plastik Talks is a community-based organisation focussing on fighting plastic pollution in Kampala. We believe there is too much talk and not enough action when it comes to the environment in Uganda so our Plastik ‘Talks’ are actually always practical, helping people to see how they can create treasures from trash, whether through art, infrastructures or new products they can sell. 

Here, in Kampala, on the banks of lake Victoria, solving the climate crisis is far from many people’s minds. There is extremely high unemployment amongst many young graduates increasingly disillusioned by society. To gain traction here, we want to show them that there are other ways to use their training that can save money, create new income streams and clean their homes and communities. 

We are born from a team of young Ugandans, many of us professionally qualified, as artists, engineers, and teachers, using our skills to engage unemployed youth about the environment. For instance, as a civil engineer, Tony is able to run workshops on how to design and construct bathrooms, walls and infrastructures out of recycled plastic. As an artist, I have focussed on creating a beautiful community space full of upcycled sculptures, creating sensitising murals and installations, and using art to leave a mark in people’s minds about plastic waste. We have one of the local mamas teaching people how to make soap distributed in recycled bottles. 

Our message is to Ugandans: we can do more with our education than you might think with plastic waste - and it can benefit you, your families and your environment. So don’t sit at home, come and join us!

Can you summarise what you do on the ground and what impact you are seeing?

We took over an illegal dumpsite in 2021 that had been used by Kampalan residents to dump solid  waste for 10 years: we spent the first year clearing that ground and creating a beautiful waste-sorting and community education centre that it is today. 

We have constructed a community centre from 3000 recycled bottles for workshops, built a waste sorting area including bins and a 100 metre wall from thousands of discarded bottles. Where there used to be just metres of plastic-filled soil and trees dying, we now have vegetables growing from fresh soil and compost.

I love collaborating with local artists, so we’ve created a creative space full of waste sculptures, installations and educational murals, and we are now running internships with University students, one of whom is currently creating a new residency centre out of waste.

In terms of impact, we have gone from people thinking we were crazy, to slowly bringing the community on board: through outreach and workshops, we have engaged 85 households who now regularly collect, sort and bring their waste to the centre, and we have multiple schools and church groups who attend our workshops on-site.

Can you tell us more about the educational programme you started this year?

Since the start of this year, we have been focussing on educational workshops - running two programmes that we rotate on a monthly basis - with women and students. 

For the students, we have been focussing on education, the basics around plastic pollution and the environment, but always followed up with a practical element. We have groups between 45 and 80, and are following a broad lesson plan including: what is plastic, the journey of plastic into our animals and our stomachs, and practicals on how to turn plastic into useful structures (like bins, cages), jewellery, and art pieces. So far, the feedback has been great: the headmaster of our core school calls us all the time asking for more lessons - the kids are learning valuable life skills and also protecting their environment.

For the women, we have a different programme, we’re helping them create small businesses that can make them more independent and environmentally responsible. We started with liquid soap-making workshops with our group of local stay-at-home mamas. The aim of these sessions has been to provide practical skills including making the soaps as well as teaching them business and marketing skills, while also communicating that plastic is not needed. Bottling is done in beautiful glass bottles, and each household is now considering how to create small businesses to supplement their family income. The women say they now have additional income to support their family, which stops them having to rely on their husbands, and is empowering them to be independent as well as more responsible about their waste.

What does the future bring?

We are inspired by Flipflopi’s 3 pillar approach: Innovation (creating business and solutions from waste); Education and Influencing, and these are our key areas of focus moving forwards.

Education is at the foundation of our activities. We will be continuing with our community outreach, school and church programme, running workshops, bringing more households on board with waste sorting, and continuing to work with local artists to create campaigns that sensitise the community, like on World Environment Day.

Innovation and creating business solutions and new income generation is our new key focus area though. We will continue to support local mamas with skills to create small business opportunities like the liquid soaps, and are also  exploring possible product offerings, such as soaps from waste oils, and bags from waste plastic. Our aim to create small social enterprises on-site that women and youth can run to bring themselves income, and creating a platform to teach more people about the possibilities of wealth from waste and cleaning up their environment. 

We’ll keep fighting to influence people beyond our communities though. We will participate in awareness day campaigns, using visual arts to create experiences and demonstrations that will attract the media. Because while there are still huge amounts of non-recyclables, dirty nappies and single-use plastic choking our trenches and lakes, we cannot maintain a clean or healthy environment. We have to fight  to get our leaders to take action.