Lamu Archipelago 2022
SETTING SAIL TO MAP THE IMPACT OF MARINE LITTER IN THE WESTERN INDIAN OCEAN.
Despite being home to some of the world's lowest plastic-emitting countries, Western Indian Ocean (WIO) countries receive more than 97,000 tonnes of plastic each year. And due to the nature of currents, the Lamu Archipelago receives a huge portion of plastics from places as far as the Philippines.
Small islands like ours don’t have proper waste management facilities in place and can’t handle the quantities of plastics washing ashore. During our expedition, we witnessed the devastating impact of these plastics - to mangroves, reefs and all forms of marine biodiversity.
In order to start understanding the problem, we conducted a baseline study to measure the presence of nano, micro and macro plastics in our oceans.Through our findings and the support of our partners, we’re using the network we’ve built to establish the first-of-its-kind, industrial scale recycling plant and heritage boat building centre on Lamu Island!
Tackling plastic pollution on the Island
“Without any proper waste management systems, our community has been forced to take our own action on plastic pollution. By better understanding the problematic plastics, we can contribute to the action plan for the development of a sustainable waste management system in Lamu.
This includes plans for a plastic recovery centre and a plastic boat building centre as well as other valuable products for the local market that will bring new jobs whilst cleaning the environment.”
Ali Skanda - Co-Founder of the Flipflopi Project
In low tech environments like ours, we really get to see creativity thrive and are constantly inspired by the eco warriors we meet along the way.
From young fishermen in upcycled plastic boats to the Bahari Moja women, our plans to build a proper waste management system and heritage boat building academy are now more optimistic than ever.
We ended our expedition with a boat builders forum on-board and have since expanded our sustainable community-led open-loop waste management system.
