Boatbuilding
we built the world’s first 100% recycled plastic sailing ‘dhow’ and are now resarching and manufacturing different types of boats in our lamu facility
A boatbuilding centre of excellence at our recycling and training centre
Using waste plastics and heritage boat building to tackle plastic pollution
In Lamu, Kenya, waste management is next to non-existent while populations rise and the ocean continuously washes more plastics onto its shores. Now though, we’re working to do something about it.
The world’s first 100% recycled plastic sailing ‘dhow’
We built the world’s first traditional sailing dhow from recycled plastic, Flipflopi Ndogo, as a prototype and proof of concept. Now we are embedding recycled plastic lumber as an alternative material to hardwoods or fibreglass for artisanal vessels. With three successful prototypes on the water, we are ready to take the leap and start the process of building a +20mt sailing dhow, Flipflopi Kubwa, to be able to spread the message and movement on a global scale.
This has never been done before. So we have recyclers, designers and engineers involved from all corners of the world to research and develop the materials and processes to make this happen.
KILA KITU INAWEZI KANA…
Boat-building toolkit
We’ve made this Boat Building toolkit to walk you through the steps we took to make the Flipflopi Ndogo. Within this toolkit is all the information you need to start collecting materials, learning processes and how to put it all together.
May these pages serve as a starting point, reference or motivation for anyone interested in turning plastic waste into an awesome BIG idea.
Research and development
With higher quality and confidence in our material and processes, we have been able to complete the renovation of our first dhow; Flipflopi Ndogo. Flipflopi Ndogo was always seen as a prototype to help us learn more about how recycled plastic, as lumber, behaves in this setting. Discovering through field testing, expeditions and transportation (amongst other things) what has worked and how we can continually improve and of course share findings. Now we have finalised and tested two new boats of different sizes and designs, which have taught us a lot about the qualities and processes for producing and using our locally produced recycled plastic lumber in carpentry of furniture and especially boats.
While all of these tests and improvements and the effect of having three different models of dhows on the water are inspiring our local communities to rethink their image of plastic, these developments all feed back into, and bring us closer to our original vision: To build a dhow big enough to carry the message to the world!