There’s no time to waste when it comes to ocean pollution. It’s estimated that 100 000 marine mammals and turtles are killed annually by plastic waste. And the cheap flip-flops we wear to the beach exacerbate this problem. They wash up on the shore, littering the sand with materials that can take hundreds of years to decompose. Erin Smith, the CEO of Ocean Sole, is fighting back by turning discarded sandals into sculptures. She’s teaching people to collect flip-flops from the shorelines of Kenya’s beaches and shape them into art. After cleaning the footwear, artisans sand them down and mould them into animal figures. As an attractive solution to an environmental hazard, the beauty of each piece is doubled by the positive impact it’s making. Smith’s initiative provides jobs in a country with a high unemployment rate, and has recycled hundreds of thousands of flip-flops. Visit oceansoleonline.com to see their work. Footage by Ocean Sole was used in the creation of this film.
Up Next in Season 2
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Neda DeMayo
Horses need herds. Throughout the ages, they’ve galloped around the globe in groups of up to 20 strong. But today, these close-knit families are barely intact. The number of wild horses roaming free in the United States of America has decreased by 98% in the last century. With their habitat decre...
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Damien Cole
Everything has a limit, even the ocean. With an estimated eight million tonnes of plastic streaming into the sea every year, this rich ecosystem is reaching its end. Born out of the conservation efforts of four Californian surfers in 1984, the Surfrider Foundation is now one of the largest non-pr...
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Robin Beaman
The Earth’s surface is 71% water but less than 20% of the ocean floor has been mapped, leaving most of the seabed a mystery. The length and depth of what we’re missing is inconceivable. Marine geologist Robin Beaman is working to change that. Using 3D-mapping technology and underwater robots, Bea...
