'The World Society for the Protection of Animals' (WSPA) has recently launched a new project that will raise awareness of the threats to whales and other marine species. To raise this awareness WSPA have teamed up with UniquEco to construct a life-size Minke Whale. UniquEco has been set up to promote eco-business initiatives across Eastern Africa.

One of its main projects is the Flip flop Project piloted in northern Kenya. The flip-flop is the most basic footwear for so many in the world, yet every day hundreds of these brightly coloured, non-degradable pieces of rubber wash up on beaches around the globe, blighting the coastlines and the lives of local inhabitants and ecology.

It is hard to believe that a simple flip-flop can be transformed from environmentally damaging waste into eye-catching glamour using only human creativity. It is with the above in mind that WSPA approached UniquEco to make a life-size minke whale from discarded flip flops washed ashore. This life-size Minke whale will promote the awareness of threats to whales, re-emphasize the need for recycling and portray the flotsam and jetsam littering Kenya's beaches.

Yet on the northern coast of East Africa there is a remarkable solution to this man-made problem. Here the local women and children have been encouraged to collect this washed up rubbish that arrives from as far afield as Japan, Indonesia,Malaysia and China. The villagers have been trained to turn this rubbish into saleable products such as animal sculptures, children's mobiles and elaborate bags.

In turn Schools to the Sea were approached to aid with the clean-up of some of the beaches and collect flip flops for this WSPA project. Schools to the Sea, supplied 22 school students and sponsored the transportation to Watamu (1.5 hours North of Mombasa) and logistics for the clean up together with Watamu Turtle Watch. Furthermore, the students from Mombasa were taken on a mangrove board walk on the way home to show them mangroves and the surrounding environment. Twenty six big bags of flip flops were collected during this venture.