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 Thanks so much!

My mom brought home a giraffe made by them years ago. It still sits on her desk and I remember her talking about how it was made. She visited the factory and saw them working on other sculptures. So neat to see how that giraffe was made! Not to mention the larger scale sculptures which she could only describe to me. They are so beautiful and well made considering the materials were nothing more than trash hours before.

These people are mad talented. I love the Africans who protect their lands and animals from poachers and climate. I would love to see Africa one day but its so big! Sincerely, an Armenian.

If I actually decorated my house, I’d have a bunch of these. The colors actually make me smile.

Love how nothing is gone to waste in the work process. The flipflops? Turned into art. The extra bits? Matresses for those in need. Even the talented workers, who might otherwise have struggled in the current world now have a new medium to practice on. Awesome work.

This is some insane upcycling & value addition. The artistic component is really commendable

This makes me proud to be a Kenyan. Well done guys. God bless you

there arent words for how much i love this. they don't seem to be overworking themselves, theyre doing what they love without the splinters, AND cleaning the environment? not to mention theyre repurposing product instead of chopping down trees to make new ones.

Not the first time hearing about this but glad for the reminder of how creative and resourceful Kenyan people are. Nobody wants this to wash up on their beaches but definitely the saying, 'One mans trash is another mans treasure' is being applied here.💯

As a Filipino, I’m so sorry for our garbage reaching your beautiful beaches!!!!! Kenya is very innovative, so creative. Hopefully we can stop fighting (within our nation) and heal both our mother nature and people.. 🙌

I really love this type of business model. It's tackling multiple issues. It's cleaning up the beaches and repurposing material, it's helping the wood carvers pivot to a new job to sustain themselves, it's giving others without the skills a means of earning a living by harvesting the flip flops, it's bringing awareness to damage of purchasing and feeding the demand for foam flip flops. Also props for them actually wearing masks while sanding. Health concerns can often be ignored in poor areas.

This is an amazing way to make something out of trash! I hope this is something that inspires others to do things like this to help the environment in their own way!

This is a small detail, but I’m really happy to see the workers wearing masks when sanding down the figurines! Protect them lungs

I've seen these sculptures plenty of times but never learned where they were from or how they were made. Thank you for this peek into how it is keeping a skilled trade alive while making art out of what was considered useless waste.

I still find it ridiculous that poorer countries can do so much for the environment but the best richer countries can do is ban plastic straws and just making different environmental problems by replacing them with metal or silicone straws. I really hope these types of businesses take off or at least emulated by other countries just so that we can do the most we can to help the environment. I've already seen disposable party plates made of leaves, edible utensils and paper made from elephant poop.

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to these people. Just imagine how they helped nature during the years of work there. It's just incredible! It's just a dream when people's business saves nature. If I see such a figurine, I will definitely buy it.

This is incredible. The most impressive artists to me are the ones who somehow manage to transform waste and other low cost materials into something beautiful. It's almost like real-world alchemy.

As a Kenyan, I am proud on how creative my people can be!

I really wish they set up a shop here in Brazil, this is such a great idea. We do have a massive flip-flops problem and those sculptures work really well as shop decorations because they fit our country's vibe. I'm also sure tourists would love to buy those, they are such cute souvenirs!

I wish this video was longer! I can not thank these people enough! From the collectors, to the washing process, to the artists! THANK YOU!

This is amazing. Not just cleaning up the beach, but taking an ugly thing that screws up the world and making it beautiful. It may be a small difference but it’s an inspiration to the rest of the world to do more. PS. My only problem with this is I feel bad for all the people who lost their shoes

Using old cultural art techniques while reducing waste! Wow, I'm so very happy for these people

I love how clever humans can be when they think outside of the box. These artisans don’t have all of the bells and whistles that other artists have, yet they’re end product is exemplary. Great job, everyone 👏👏👏

I can't even explain how awesome this is, that near zero goes to waste here and that they just decided to 'do' this for the better and instead of wood carving which is harmful to the environment. Huge props to these people

AMAZING!! Kenya just works.Trash is literally turned to treasure. From repurposed flip-flops to clothes that help make high quality furniture to tires that become tree planters . Seems like there is a whole culture/industry based on saving the planet and that is very commendable

This business needs to go world wide....may Kenya and Africa prosper someday🤞♥️

One of my eyes is crying, the other is laughing. It's sad to see so much garbage, but the ingenuity of these people is fantastic and adorable. I hope the western world will also be able to wake up one day.

If I ever get to visit Kenya, I won't go home without buying one of that master piece.

This is super cool. Have the utmost respect for the people who collect, prep and create those amazing pieces. They are doing something that is helping the environment. That is a real solution and nature appreciates it.

I’m glad they were able to transfer their skill from wood into a waste product. They have some mad skills!

I felt guilty about creating trash and was impressed by the art that could be created out of it. This is incomparably better than any avant-garde art.

I think these are wonderful! Finds a creative way to use what otherwise would've been waste, gives these talented artists fresh materials to work with again, lets the collectors earn a bit of much needed extra income, creates materials to fill mattresses for those in need, and lets people buy a colorful piece of art to display!

This is so wonderful ❤️❤️❤️ Your impact on reducing waste, the opportunities you give to people for making money, and just the pure talent of your artists. 🙏🥺

What an amazing organisation! There's really a lot of thought that goes into every aspect of the business. I do hope that the workers are getting paid a fair wage esp the wood carvers for their talents and I hope they can offer more to the collectors in the future too, 30 cents a kilo for a light product doesn't seem much. Overall I'm very impressed and inspired by the beautiful products. I hope they can expand abroad or other countries are able to follow the same model.

they are soo inspiring. they dont even cause the pollution at their beaches but still they feel responsible for that problem and the idea behind it is just great. lots of respect to the workers and artists. i hope i can have one sculpture for myself some day

This is so heart warming! I love African people. I had many friends from Africa, and they are childish, energetic, they know how to make money with discipline and also how to have fun. They like no other people in the West. They are definitely from special clay. Peace be upon you my friends. Thank you for the value you provided to the planet!

This could be an inspiration for us Pacific Islanders, hope we could cope with these types of programs. Thanks Kenyan brothers and sisters, big love from Fiji.

This is hands down my favorite World Wide Waste video. I just love seeing what they have done to turn waste into treasure while keeping people employed. Looked like many of the people working there are very happy and proud of the work they collectively have done.

That is amazing to me. I love that they are turning it into art and useful things. Whoever thought it up is a genius. I'm glad it's helping to clean up Kenya's beaches and turning the flip flops into something wonderful.

This has actually inspired me. I think I plan to go door to door at the college dorms to collect plastic bags and use them in my own art from now on

This is so unique. I would love to purchase a sculpture like that!! they are colourful and lively. Really great. Also, instead of wasting natural resources like wood to create sculptures, they're using discarded flipflops and helping the environment and cleaning the earth!! Lovely work 👏👏👏

I really like how the kids are the brains behind this whole idea that is now generating revenue, reducing waste and creating employment. It goes to show that kids think out of the box and their creativity should be encouraged and supported even more. I'm from Kenya and I remember when we used to play with toys that we constructed ourselves. We made toy cars from milk cartons and used bottle caps as wheels. At the farm we made bigger toy cars from molding a frame out of twigs and branches and using flipflops to make the tires. I remember using cigarette rappers as currency and using it when we played with marbles, that was our version of monopoly back then. We were young and creative. I wonder what happened. Another one is the flip flop expedition, a whole functioning sailing boat that was built in Lamu from flip flops!

This is the kind of content I love being recommended. So wholesome, so inspiring ♡

I love seeing fellow african countries care for their country’s environment! I hope someday that people in my country Sudan can do the same 💯

Had a smile on my face this whole video. Beautiful art, and I like to see the workers with good tools and masks. Amazing job Kenya!

Amazing! We need more projects like this around the world. To bring awareness about the environment to provide jobs to people and to maintain the traditional and also new art going

Business perspective, good business, no problem with supply, quite popular and only worried about payroll and other expenses. Humanitarian perspective, helping the environment, love it! Artist perspective, I saw the Giraffe's face and I could personally say it's of quality. Gold mine of an idea.

This company is amazing. I hope this could be done worldwide. So happy :D

This honestly makes me so happy, I love the beaches and it sucks to see them all reduced to nothing more than a garbage heap. I’m glad such wonderful people exist to do so many kind hearted things

It’s shameful that “we” allow so much wasted crap to just float away thinking that it just disappears for us. I’m glad to see that they are doing something creative with it but I fear that with all the sanding and carving they’re creating tons of microscopic plastic/foam as a byproduct. I’m glad to see people working to keep the beaches clean also, but in another way it’s sad that they need too.

This is truly incredible. Their talent is amazing and its so clever how they create the colourful sculptures. All this while also helping the environment 👏

This entire concept is amazing and the end products are beautiful. So many talented artists. I LOVE this. ♥️♥️♥️

This is an amazing way to repurpose flip flops. A few years back, I had the opportunity to speak with some of these artists, and they all said that they don't want people to think that they appreciate these flip flops. They would prefer that the flip flops didn't litter their beaches and destroy their environment.

These sculptures are truly amazing pieces. It's heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time. The problem of pollution, and somehow they transformed some of the problem into beauty and artistry.

That is absolutely incredible! I just love it. Thank you.

My friends and I purchased the coolest cat from a gift shop nearby in Karen, Nairobi, Kenya two years ago, and we've been following the company ever since. Your purchase provides jobs, beach cleanups, and snacks for workers. Its such a great example of a sustainable business.

This isn't some cheap skilled product - these artists are so skilled and make such beautiful statues. And the it's also noble. I hope more of us buy these. If love to by the giraffe!

Kenya 🇰🇪🇰🇪🇰🇪my beloved beautiful country how I miss you! it is 6 years since I left and every single day I mention my country because it is my home! I miss the white sand beaches in the coast to the busy life of Nairobi ! I actually miss shopping in Gikomba, muthurwa …. I miss taking the noisy matatu that boom with music ! I miss shopping groceries at mama mboga ! I miss the sun ! I miss being among people and not get noticed … I miss seeing the beautiful artwork displayed in the streets! I miss eating mutura, maindi choma , Kitheri, Omena , mukimo, mabuyu , … the list is endless..I miss home and I hope I will come back soon ! In the meantime I pray for peace ! Be peaceful our fellow Kenyans and take care of our beloved country ! Lots of love from 🇬🇧🇬🇧

Wow, these artists are SO TALENTED at carving! Beautiful! Upcycled garbage into art is a wonderful thing.

This is so wholesome. I'm sure all the animals in the ocean are very grateful for this group of talented artists!!

This is so cool, and a solution to multiple problems! Cleaning up the beach, providing an alternative material for wood carvers to protect trees, using the scraps to make mattresses from refuge camps, and of course generating business and tourism and a whole new economic niche. Not to mention a beautiful way to show of Kenyan culture. Positive for the world in every way

Seeing these people enjoying their job and when theyve finished a project theyre cheering, i love that. These people seem to be loving what they do, and it has such a creative outlet as well as improving the envoirement by taking harmful trash out of it. I want to support this! I think i'll save some coin for one of their lovely creations ^w^

That is amazing even the leftover shavings are repurposed! And this is a quite sustainable material source to make art because otherwise these sandals would become litter and they turn it into art

How Beautiful & Creative!! Nice way to clean up their beaches!! I Love to hear these people talk!❤

A huge respect to the workers there who are risking their lives cause of the toxic dust of these sandals 👍🏽 .They have beautiful lands and they know how to keep it clean. India must learn......

As a Canadian. This is really inspiring and informative. Sometimes it's hard to get an in understanding of amazing things being done across the world, and this helps put things into perspective for me. This is amazing!

One of my favourite videos online. What beautiful art they create, absolutely in love. ❤

When I'm more independent, I'll deffo buy a ton of these sculptures and decorate my house 😮 the work being done here is incredible

So amazing how they are able to turn a problem into art! The sculpures look so beautiful, they're helping to keep the oceans and environment clean and employing hardworking and talented artists. Hope more places like this can be setup all over the world.

That is absolutely incredible and I want one! This company is 100% legit down to the smallest safety precautions, I was worried they were sanding these sculptures without dust masks or respirators and I'm happy to see they are in fact wearing masks. A work environment that cherishes creativity and even health/safety all the while producing products that quite literally are helping the environment to provide jobs to the unemployed. Simply incredible and inspiring, I will most likely try to buy one online if I have the money.

I can't believe how beautiful and inspiring this is 🙏🏻💖✨️

Absolutely amazing I’m a flip flop/sandal lover. I personally use them for a long time even fixing them if one side of the strap breaks off, but this is an amazing reuse of the emense amount of flip flop waste.

I have no words for how amazing this is, I'm an artist and seeing how colorful and beautifully sculpted each peace is magical, I wanna buy a small one for my bedroom :)

The ingenuity that went into this is amazing. It's really encouraging to see so many initiatives coming from Africa regarding recycling plastics into bricks, art and other usable products.

The idea is great! I just hope they handle the micro plast/plastic dust they produce with the grinders and carving tools properly. Otherwise it's worse than just leaving the sandals at the beaches. This is due to micro plast being much harder to handle and clean up. Also it's much more damaging to nature. Overall this could be so much worse than doing nothing. But maybe their handling of the seemingly huge amounts of micro plast produced is not shown in the video. But ofc I'm glad that people are trying! Makes me happy

Thank you Business Insider for taking time to come to our Nairobi office and featuring our amazing story 👌

This is by far the most beautiful art I've seen from waste. So colorful! It will be a great view in places like Parks🥰

I LOVE IT. I love the colors and how it reduces flipflops showing up on the beach. The tiny plastics from the sandings is a problem but besides that, i would love to learn how to make these or buy them 🥰

They look suppresinly good and really tantalizing that colorplay..no wonder they go as hotcakes.. well done.

I reckon this is one of the best videos I’ve watched on KZfaq so far. What an uplifting and reforming video and process.

This is amazing it's unfortunate that this is the issue that we're having with flip flops but the fact that they can actually turn it around and do something positive with it is absolutely beautiful. Hard-working people I wish they could be paid more for their time effort and talent.

these people are doing a much better job than the other trash repurposing you havs featured. they're cleaning up a lot of really harmful trash, including probably a lot of collection from the ocean (because flip flops float and collect on the shore), which is very environmentally helpful and otherwise quite rare in trash recycling, they have created jobs for a pretty large number of people, those people are now no longer contributing to problematic logging to get carving material, and they're making really good products with a whole lot of skill. it also aounds like they compensate trash collectors better than collection of trash normally pays, since they can afford it and seem to be able to use as much material as they can get, having many carvers employed and very wide distribution. I was wondering what they would do with the waste, and they said that they're making mattresses for refugees, which sounds like it might be a really good use. at least it's probably suitable for using almost all of the foam waste. and I'm not religious, but I bet some of these guys were VERY happy when the pope was gifted one of their products! :) P.S. who is the goofball who decided to make the narwhal? xD

This is so awesome! Took trash from others and turned it into something beautiful.

Это потрясающе !😊👍 Какая красота, какие удивительные скульптуры получаются 🤗

mesmerizing colour patterns, beautiful and accurate vivid shaping... those sculptures are incredibly well done

Such talent-incredible! My eyes were glued to their artwork the whole time, but when I saw the car my jaw dropped! The fact that they pay hardly any cost of materials (except 31 cents per kilogram for collecting) is amazing as well. I think more things should be made out of our waste.

I was just about to say a better use of the flip flops would be like pool beds or something like that. Mattresses and mats is a great idea but I honestly like that art - they're really cute and will bring happiness to a space.

Love all the pieces! What a great thing you're doing, I hope you're able to setup the same thing in the countries you mentioned. You're an inspiration to us all.

This is very impressive and I admire their talents and creativity. I just hope that they have some sort of a vacuum to deal with the dusts. Large plastic trash can be harsh for the environment but micro plastic is going to be a huge health danger to us human and animals as well.

Perfect example of one persons trash is another persons treasure .. Soo beautiful & smart ✨❤

Great job and This is a beautiful idea. I remember this from years ago and I hope companies abroad invest in purchasing it to use as art pieces. Different shades of creative art, collectibles etc. I can also see it as animal size used in art museums of the animal kingdom if such a thing existed just to add a flare of art to the space...even pieces that be nailed into the ground to add to the landscape.

Thank you Kenya! You truly are a role model for the world to see. Beautiful art. ♥️

Crafting wonderful things from garbage while ridding the land of pollution is incredibly thoughtful. More power to your elbows!

I’m glad you’re making a difference, neyrobi kenya, and I’m glad I shared this 4 years ago.

Never heard or seen this before. This is amazing. These people do fabulous work.

This is fantastic !!! Beautiful art !! And loving Mother Earth at the same time. I make slippers and sandals from offcuts of fabric that got discarded by an upholsterer and leftovers from my own sewing and crochet, and I use old flipflops, when I can get them, as the soles to these shoes. But I never thought to look for them on the beach ( I live in the Eastern Cape, South Africa ). Time to go beachcombing. Well done to all those amazing artists.

This reminds me of a problem we have here in the US, a severe lack of places to bring recycling to. Rural areas have no recycling services. One company who services the town next to us, and already had a truck that came out here to get trash from a dumpster, would not budge to let us have recycling services. So, we knew about a certain dumbster in that town that collects recycling and the businesses that use it hardly had anything in it. So we secretly had someone out here bring recyclable items into town. A few short years later, word slipped and the town said they would either get rid of the dumpster, which would make more recyclable items go to landfill, or they'd put the dumpster secured with fencing and a camera around it. So they secured it but now there's more recyclable items going to the landfill again. It gets worse sadly. So the company who takes the recycling and the towns trash, shut down pick up for 2-3 weeks. Apparently this did not just affect the town but many towns and a whole city! They had issues from employment to having too much trash brought in. Well, if we could have more ways to recycle that'd help, but also to put pressure on companies to change the products they use to either use less plastic or better biodegradable materials. A lot of pressure needs to be put on retail stores! Btw, Aldi's hasn't been using plastic bags for a really long time, so what is Walmart or Targets excuss for still buying and using plastic bags when Aldi's has proven you can have sturdy paper bags, and many bring their bags to the store with them so they don't have to buy new ones, which helps reduce more paper bags needed, which helps reduce trees needed. It also helps that paper bags can be 100% recyclable (as long as they aren't contaminated with chemicals like oil, grease, etc). What I wanted to get at is from a lack of recycling in our area, I started doing plastic bottle flowers. 2 large trash bags can be filled up by 2 weeks with the many plastic materials that get tossed out, like from a family household of 3 or more people. Lids I found fun to turn into things especially a lady bug, caterpillar, an ant or a spider. Of a face can be painted onto them, or the lids can be used to create an animals face, like a pig or a lion. I felt overwhelmed with how much material I could use to create with. There's too much plastics being used, especially one time use plastics. I may have stumbled across combining 2 organic materials to create a new glue, or used for biodegradable molds, or both, and they don't get moldy, and dry in less than 30min.

This is so beautiful! When I went to Kwale in Mombasa, Kenya, i didn’t notice any lone sandals at the beach. But maybe I was just too mesmerized Indian Ocean. Ive been to nastier beaches on the west coast of America. Id love to go back to Kenya again. It’s soooooooooooooooo beautiful (the countryside and the city). and this is an AMAZING effort. Next time I’ll purchase this art when I visit again. I also wish the Kenyan government supplemented agricultural and recycling efforts more.

I recycle and produce art from plastic waste in our kayak roto-moulding factory. It's a truly enjoyable pastime and people love it. This is some next level stuff.

Not only is this amazing and inspiring because of the unique way they are dealing with waste, but the artisans creating such amazing pieces of art is just amazing beyond words. ❤️