Lessons learned

In trying to collect plastic from shorelines and the community, The Flipflopi Project has learned valuable lessons along the way.

Here are our top five lessons for collecting plastic waste.

1. Plan your collection system carefully

This worked well in terms of community participation, but it also caused serious challenges:

• Too many people came at once, leading to errors in weighing and record-keeping.
• We did not own transport, so moving the collected plastic took days due to limited tractor availability on the island.
• Some plastic was stolen and resold at later events, even with security in place.

To solve these problems, we changed our approach. Instead of going to the community, we invited people to bring plastic to our site on the last Saturday of every month. This gave us better control over:

• Weighing and verifying plastic correctly.
• Keeping accurate records.
• Storing materials safely.
• Managing transport better, as collections were spread out over time.

While this model had its own challenges, it made our system more organised and reliable.

2. Have your own transport

One year after we started buy-back collections, we bought a tractor with a trailer. This allowed us to collect plastic waste directly from people’s homes and community groups.

Owning our own transport made a big difference:

• We no longer had to hire transport, which was expensive and unreliable.
• It saved time and money for both our team and the community.
• We could now collect plastic from more distant neighbourhoods.

However, owning a vehicle also comes with ongoing costs. It is important to plan how to pay for:

• Drivers and loaders to operate the vehicle.
• Fuel, maintenance, and spare parts to keep it running.
• Insurance and repairs in case of breakdowns.

Before buying transport, make sure you have a long-term plan to keep it running and affordable.

3. Work with community groups

Partnering with environmental or social groups can make plastic collection easier and more effective. These groups often have many members, making it simpler to coordinate collections. They also care about conservation, which means they are already motivated to help. Working with groups also helps with tracking and verifying the plastic collected.

However, many groups do more than just waste collection. They might also work on marine conservation, education, or health projects, which can divide their time and energy.

It is important to respect their priorities while also keeping waste collection organised and consistent.

4. Clean-ups are important

The goal is to stop plastic waste from reaching dumpsites or polluting the environment. However, there is already a lot of old waste in important ecosystems, known as legacy waste.

Community clean-ups help remove this waste, but they must be combined with education and better waste management systems. Without this, plastic will keep piling up.

In shoreline communities, not all waste comes from local people. Plastic washes in from other places, carried by tides and currents. Until there are big global changes, clean-ups will remain necessary to protect the environment.

5. Support your waste collectors

For the past three years, The Flipflopi Project has worked with individuals and groups who collect plastic waste from the environment.

Besides offering financial incentives, we have also introduced social support programmes to help collectors in other ways. These include:

• Training on plastic sorting to improve recycling quality.
• Food voucher programmes to support livelihoods.
• Providing PPE (gloves, masks, boots) for safety.
• First aid training to prevent and manage injuries.
• Reusable pad and diaper distribution for personal care.
• School supplies for children of waste collectors.
• Developing infrastructure and equipment to help groups work better.

These programmes aim to give collectors and groups long-term skills, better working conditions, and economic opportunities.