ABOUT

The Flipflopi Project is a circular economy initiative working to end plastic pollution through education, innovation, and advocacy. Best known for building the world’s first sailing dhow made entirely from recycled plastic, Flipflopi promotes solutions for plastic waste prevention, recovery, recycling, innovation and sustainable livelihoods in coastal and island communities.

The Flipflopi Toolkit is a practical guide designed to help SMEs, CBOs and NGOs develop resilient plastic recovery programmes supported by a mix of income and partnerships.

Many circular initiatives struggle due to high operational costs, limited market access, and technical challenges. Drawing from years of experience working in the remote coastal communities of the Lamu archipelago, The Flipflopi Project has developed this comprehensive resource to share proven strategies and best practices with others facing similar challenges.

The toolkit provides step-by-step guidance on setting up and running a successful circular initiative, covering:

Scaling your impact

• R&D – Improving materials, processes, and techniques.
• Teaching – Sharing knowledge through training and education.
• Partnerships – Working with governments and municipalities to improve waste systems.
• Policymaking – Informing decision-makers on supporting circular economies.
• Campaigning –  Lessons from pushing for stronger laws, and how to start.

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Where we work

The Lamu Archipelago is home to more than 45,000 people, living across a mix of islands. According to the 2019 census, nearly half the population is female, and over 70% are under the age of 35. Poverty remains a pressing issue, with a poverty rate of 32.3% and one of the widest wealth gaps in Kenya.

Waste management systems in the Lamu Archipelago are limited. As the population grows, the gaps in infrastructure and policy are becoming more visible. Without proper systems in place, most waste is dumped, burned, or buried — with plastic waste posing the biggest challenge.

Although Lamu is not a major producer of plastic waste, the lack of effective collection and recycling systems means that even small volumes can have serious impacts on health, livelihoods, and the environment. On top of this, waste from the ocean regularly washes ashore, adding to the burden.

In 2022, in response to these urgent needs, we launched a circular economy model for plastics. A baseline survey revealed that nearly all respondents viewed plastic waste as a problem in their daily lives. At the time, 44.6% of plastic waste was being dumped, 38.7% burned, and 16.6% buried.

With support from the Sustainable Manufacturing and Environmental Pollution (SMEP) Programme, The Flipflopi Project established Lamu County’s first material recovery and recycling facility. This centre focuses on recovering and reprocessing both ocean-bound and ocean-based plastic while supporting the broader shift from linear to circular systems of production and consumption.

Today, our model reaches an estimated 33,000 people across the Lamu archipelago, plus another 6,000 on the mainland – covering more than 70% of the island population and nearly a third of the county overall.

Managing Plastic Waste

Plastic pollution is one of the most urgent environmental challenges of our time. It affects our health, our livelihoods, and the natural systems we rely on.

Yet the impacts are not felt equally. According to WWF, the hidden costs of plastic pollution – from health to environmental damage – can be up to ten times higher in low-income countries, despite those countries using far less plastic per person than high-income ones.

In Kenya, 428,000 tonnes of plastic waste go uncollected or are improperly managed each year. Around 56% of this is openly burned, releasing 233,000 tonnes of harmful emissions into the air. An estimated 37,000 tonnes ends up in the ocean annually.

Globally, plastic use is set to triple by 2060, with a threefold increase in the amount of plastic building up in rivers, lakes and oceans. Much of this growth will happen in Asia and Africa, where populations and consumption are rising quickly – but where waste systems are often under-resourced.

If nothing changes, lower- and middle-income countries could see waste volumes increase by as much as 40% by 2050. Without sustainable systems in place, this burden will fall hardest on the communities already facing the most strain.

The Flipflopi Toolkit was created to help address this – from the ground up. Our approach focuses on practical, community-based solutions that treat plastic waste not as a nuisance to be burned or buried, but as a material that can be recovered, repurposed and turned into value. Through innovation, partnership and local leadership, we believe it’s possible to turn the tide on plastic pollution – starting where it matters most.

Mitigating Plastic Pollution through Heritage Boat Building, implemented by The Flipflopi Project Foundation Ltd, was awarded a UK International Development grant to establish a plastic waste collection network in the Lamu archipelago. The objective was to establish a material recovery and mechanical recycling facility (MRF) and production facility (PF) to produce high grade plastic lumber and turn it into high end products like artisanal sailing boats and furniture.

The grant was made via the Sustainable Manufacturing and Environmental Pollution (SMEP) Programme. The SMEP Programme is funded by UK International Development from the UK Government and is implemented in partnership with the UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) providing technical support.

The toolkits are supported through SMEP as part of Flipflopi’s “Mitigating Plastic Pollution through Heritage Boat Building” Project which was funded from January 2022 – March 2025 (Consortium partners: University of Northumbria, CORDIO East Africa, and University of Portsmouth).

The SMEP Programme aims to generate cutting-edge scientific evidence and to improve existing knowledge on the environmental health and socio-economic impacts of selected manufacturing sectors across target countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The programme also aimed to identify technology-based solutions to address the most pressing environmental health issues associated with manufacturing in focus countries and invest in developing business processes and systems to promote the uptake of identified pollution control solutions.

Our impact (June 2022 – March 2025)

• The project has achieved an average 22% reduction in recyclable plastics at dumpsites.
• A 2024 report by UNCTAD and the UK-FCDO ranked the Flipflopi model as having the highest projected health gain of all projects assessed, with an estimated 24 years of life gained for every 1,000 tonnes of plastic recycled.
• Over 300 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent emissions have been reduced or avoided through project activities.
• More than 300 community members have been trained in citizen science to support local data collection and environmental monitoring.
• The project has created 30 permanent jobs, with 40% of these held by women, and contracted over 50 additional workers.
• It has directly injected over $70,000 into a network of more than 1,000 community collectors and groups, 60% of whom are women.
• The project has received formal recognition from both the Lamu County Government and Kenya’s National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA).
• A draft bill has been submitted to the East African Community, aimed at eliminating unnecessary single-use plastics across the region.

Toolkit team

Scaling your impact:

• R&D – Katharina Elleke, Leonard Schürg and Simon Scott-Harden
• Partnerships – Dipesh Pabari and Zoë Lenkiewicz
• Training – Katharina Elleke
• Policymaking – Leonard Schürg and Zoë Lenkiewicz
• Campaigning – Maliha Sumar and Zoë Lenkiewicz

Editors:
Dipesh Pabari (Flipflopi) and Zoë Lenkiewicz (Global Waste Lab)

Toolkit concept, design and development:
Zoë Lenkiewicz (Global Waste Lab), David Leeke (Dynafish), Marjolijn Pasman (Dynafish), and Simon Scott-Harden (Northumbria University)

Flipflopi team:
Ali Skanda, Abubakar Khalid, Ali Sayyed, Salim Omar, David Omoro, Fatuma Yusef, Edward Kamanza, Ramadhan Nzai, Swafia Mohamed, Ghamachana Nashehe, Sanita Thoya, Joyce Kahindi, Lameck Mweni, Morris Kilonzo, Owino Bernard, Bakari Omar, Ali Abdalla, Joseph Baya, Fatma Galgalo, Fatma Shebunu, Amina Abdalla, Abdulkarim Bake, Shee Mohammed, Zeinhab Mohammed, Nuru Awadh, Mark Otieno, Hassan Shariff, Harrison Mae, Zawadi Mwalimu, Daniel Ogola, Joseph Baya, Mary Stone, Becca Faber, Simon Scott-Harden, Simon Benson… and all the many students and volunteers who have contributed to our learning over the years – asante sana!

Disclaimer

This is an output of research funded by the Sustainable Manufacturing and Environmental Pollution (SMEP) Programme. UK International Development, from the UK Government, and UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) provide financial and technical support for SMEP. The views expressed and information contained in this document (including any maps and their respective borders) are not necessarily those of or endorsed by the UK government, UNCTAD or the entities managing the delivery of SMEP, which can accept no responsibility or liability for such views, completeness, or accuracy of the information or any reliance placed on them.