Celebrating new mile-stones
We’re an East African plastic revolution and a global movement with tens of thousands of supporters across the globe. Our first boat-build in 2016 began under a humble shade at Ali’s boatyard but at the time, we didn’t have any of our own recycling machinery so all parts were built at a workshop in Malindi that has since closed.
Since then, Ali’s boatyard has transformed into a state of the art recycling facility with industrial machines, mountains of plastic waste coming in from our community thanks to financial support from the UKAID SMEP Program and incredibly talented team members who are carving plastics, teaching boat-building and recycling as well as innovating new products.
As part of our vision has always been to scale the local circular economy, we opened a vocational training centre that has seen 30 students come through the program to date in less than one year.
To visualise our growth, imagine this, we now process more plastic each month than it took for our entire first boat-build!
Our multi-talented designer who’s also part of the Precious Plastic team produced a trilogy of videos that transport you to our sunny, beach side Lamu HQ for an insightful tour of our workshop.
Meet our carpenters, co-founder, workshop staff and find out how our facility works in the video below.
Our co-founders did not start off as plastic and recycling experts. They were ordinary people who wanted to change the state of our natural environment and so we turned to online resources and open source platforms such as Precious Plastic alongside our exceptional volunteers who had all the right technical skills and passion, and of course all the incredible financial support we have received from so many, which is all we needed initially!
Sharing information and resources to educate and influence innovation is at the heart of what we do. That’s why we are so grateful for the opportunity to show you how our students at the heritage boat-building training centre built the Dau La Mwao, a traditional fishing boat.
Since our first boat-build, we have significantly improved our techniques and equipment, learning along the way and developing new partnerships with institutions such as the Kenya Marine Authorities, University of Northumbria and Newcastle and companies such as Leister who have provided industry knowledge and a game-changing plastic welding tool.
Joining planks and filling gaps is a crucial part of the process at the Flipflopi and when we finally figured out plastic welding, we couldn’t contain our joy and so, we’re here to share it with you!
Head to the video below to see low and high tech methods and learn with us.
Special thanks to Katharina and the Precious Plastic team for sharing our story and for your outstanding support and resources for the global small-scale recycling community.