Nineteen years ago, Julie Church was heading a marine conservation project in northern Kenya. The environmentalist was concerned about p...
Nineteen years ago, Julie Church was heading a marine conservation project in northern Kenya. The environmentalist was concerned about pollution on the beaches. Local children who made toys from the litter inspired her to do something about the waste.
Church, together with local artisans, began turning flip-flop garbage into fun, colourful safari animal and sealife sculptures.
But after receiving a large order and with Sh300,000 capital, Church started a company called UniquEco that turns waste into wealth. UniquEco was renamed Ocean Sole in 2012.
“I am telling the world that the ocean is not the world’s dump yard,” Church said when asked why she decided to collect waste from the ocean.
“We manually collect flip-flops with our partners - Watamu Marine Association, Kuruwitu, Welfare and Conservation Association and many more,” said Katie Carnelley, who is in charge of marketing and communications at Ocean Sole.
Ocean Sole up-cycles over 50,000 kilogrammes of flip-flop waste each year, which is about 336,000 to 400,000 flip-flops collected by local people from Kuruwitu, Watamu, Mkwiro, Wasini Island, Msabweni and Kiwayu.
The garbage is then weighed and taken through nine stages, including unloading, cleaning, sorting by colour, gluing pieces together, carving, sanding, adding fine details, washing and drying the final products and quality check and packaging.
Ocean Sole targets retail shops, hotels, camps and safari lodges, gift shops, zoos, aquariums, art galleries, non-profit organisations and individuals across the globe.
Small art pieces retail for about Sh1000 ($10), while the very big ones cost up to Sh1 million ($10,000).
Katie says that, “Our products are very popular abroad and securing international agents and sales of the larger items is part of our long-term strategy to drive sales.” She adds that, “Ocean Sole is looking for retail agents for our products, investors, donors and support partners to help us achieve our long-term mission.”
