Hello readers,
We’re back from the Easter holiday, and we hope you all had a lovely break! As usual, we’re excited about all the flip-flops we will upcycle into amazing art and continue raising visual awareness of the pollution problem.
We carry out weekly beach clean-ups on the coast of Kenya. It’s our commitment to helping save marine wildlife from ingesting plastic and other waste that sadly end up in our oceans. Last month, we helped remove 187.41 kg of plastic waste, of which 15.85kg were discarded flip-flops.
We partnered with the Kenya Wildlife Service, Kuruwitu Women Group, Bureni Fishermen and Oceans Alive Kenya to carry out the beach clean up at Kijagwani Beach Shariani. We love partnering with individuals and other organisations as passionate about conservation as we are.
Bureni fishermen, Ocean Alive Kenya and Kuruwitu Women Group
At Ocean Sole, education is one thing we love to do. We educate students and adults about the environment, conservation and how they can be part of the process. We had an incredible time with students of Kibaoni primary school as we engaged them in practical exercises concerning the environment.
Kibaoni Primary School
In addition, we participated in the restoration of 1,066 mangrove seedlings at Gastonia Beach. Rehabilitated and restored mangrove ecosystems have essential ecological, economic, and social values for coastal communities. We bought 66 seedlings from a local conservation group, Friends of Nature, and donated to the mangrove restoration effort.
Gastonia beach, mangrove restoration point
There’s a major dumpsite in Kilifi where locals throw waste. To help recycle waste from the site, we paid local youths to assist in collecting flip-flops thrown on the site. Working with the youth is a way of empowering them and encouraging them to be part of the cleaning efforts in their neighborhood. We bought 265kgs of flip-flops from the site.
Kilifi dump site
Last month, we collected 884.35 kgs of trash from our coastal clean-up exercises, and we bought 866 kgs of discarded flip-flops from members of the local community to encourage them to clean their environment.
Our coastal team sorting out trash collected
Our coastal operations assistant Thomas visited the Watamu Marine Association to review a potential partnership with them in our beach clean-ups. Eco World Watamu has a recycling program which is helpful to us as we can pass to them trash that we have collected but can’t upcycle. We’re excited to see the many things we can achieve together!
Thank you for being part of our mission! Email us at hello@oceansoleafrica.com for any enquiries, custom orders, or projects or if you want to know how to get involved with our mission!
