"Rich, poor, everyone has a pair," notes Lillian Mulup of Kenyan company Ocean Sole, which turns discarded flip-flops and other pieces of plastic into colorful sculptures or children's toys.

A worker cuts pieces of flip-flops at a recycling company in Nairobi, February 9, 2022 Simon MAINA AFP

"Because they are very cheap, when a pair is out of order you throw it away and buy a new one. So we end up with a lot of flip flops on our beaches," she adds.

The growing scourge of plastic waste will be at the heart of negotiations for an international plastics treaty, which will begin on February 28 at a United Nations summit in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.

Governments will be urged to agree on a framework to reduce plastic pollution "from source to ocean", as well as to scale up existing recycling techniques.

A worker sorts through flip-flops at a recycling company in Nairobi, February 9, 2022 Simon MAINA AFP

Plastic has been found in the most microscopic plankton and even in the bellies of whales.

Less than 10% of plastic is recycled, and the majority ends up clogging landfills and the oceans.

From "the deepest oceanic fault to the Arctic, we find plastic. It's to cry," said this week in an interview with AFP Inger Andersen, executive director of Unep, the program of the UN dedicated to the environment.

"Masterpieces"

This ecological danger is fully visible in Kilifi, where huge quantities of flip-flops but also bottle caps, toothbrushes or candy wrappers are regularly picked up on Kenyan beaches by volunteers.

"We can pick up up to a tonne over (a distance of) 2 kilometers", explains Ms. Mulupi, during one of these cleaning operations which brought together around twenty volunteers in mid-February.

Grace Wangare disposes of toys made from pieces of used flip-flops, in the store of the flip-flop recycling company Ocean Sole in Nairobi, February 9, 2022 Simon MAINA AFP

Among them, Sally Adolwa says she regularly finds rubbish from distant countries behind the dunes that border a beach near her home.

"Waste can come from India, the Philippines. Sometimes we are shocked," she told AFP.

Under a tree, large bags filled with waste are sorted by category.

Hard plastics and PET bottles will be resold to recyclers.

The flip flops - mainly made of foam and other rubber-like plastics - are purchased by Ocean Sole, which pays the volunteers.

Sent to a workshop in Nairobi, the sandals are then meticulously cleaned there, then glued to form multicolored plates.

Dozens of craftsmen - often former carpenters - then brilliantly carve them into various objects, including animals, large and small, which find takers mainly abroad.

"Our masterpieces can require some 2,000 flip-flops," says production manager Jonathan Lenato.

drop in the ocean

Flip-flops don't just come from the beaches, but also from the rivers and gutters of the slums of Nairobi, one of Africa's most dynamic capitals and facing a huge landfill deficit.

"We receive about 1.2 tons a week. Convert that into months, into years (...) That's a lot of flip flops," Lenato said.

In total, Ocean Sole claims to recycle between 750,000 and one million flip-flops per year, and to have created around 100 full-time jobs.

A sculptor puts the finishing touches to a fish-shaped toy made from pieces of discarded flip-flops, at the flip-flop recycling company Ocean Sole in Nairobi, February 9, 2022 Simon MAINA AFP

But the company is facing a tide of plastic: according to various estimates, between 19 and 23 million tonnes of plastic accumulate in the waters of the globe each year, a figure which, without action, is expected to rise sharply in the decades. future.

Mr. Lenato is well aware of this, he who has never faced a shortage of raw materials in 16 years.

"We have to do something for our environment. We encourage people around the world to do their part too," he says: "We have to recycle our waste as best we can."

© 2022 AFP