Ever contemplated the impact of discarded flip flops on our marine life? Get ready to have your eyes opened as we connect with Erin Smith, CEO of Ocean Sole. In this enlightening episode, Erin pulls back the curtain on the global crisis involving these seemingly innocuous footwear items that are wreaking havoc on our oceans.
Strap in as Erin walks us through the journey of these discarded flip flops- from poverty-stricken areas to the vast oceans, and to the coastlines of Kenya. She paints a vivid picture of how hot emerging markets contribute heavily to the flip flop debris in our oceans due to poor waste management and lack of infrastructure. Most intriguing is the journey of these flip flops, carried by the currents to our beaches, ending up as a significant part of marine debris.
But it's not all doom and gloom. Ocean Sole is transforming this crisis into an opportunity. Hear how this organization gives new life to discarded flip flops by turning them into breathtaking pieces of art. Discover the unique challenges and innovations involved in this process, and the uplifting impact it has on local communities. From providing jobs to promoting environmental awareness, this inspiring tale of turning waste into wonder will leave you in awe. Join us in this inspiring journey as we learn how art and sustainability can come together to make a difference. You're definitely going to say, "Wow, I didn't know that!"
Things that make you say "Wow"! For more episodes and additional information visit the Two Chicks and a Hoewebsite and our Facebook page. Big thanks to our Producer, Casey Kennedy.
Ever contemplated the impact of discarded flip flops on our marine life? Get ready to have your eyes opened as we connect with Erin Smith, CEO of Ocean Sole. In this enlightening episode, Erin pulls back the curtain on the global crisis involving these seemingly innocuous footwear items that are wreaking havoc on our oceans.
Strap in as Erin walks us through the journey of these discarded flip flops- from poverty-stricken areas to the vast oceans, and to the coastlines of Kenya. She paints a vivid picture of how hot emerging markets contribute heavily to the flip flop debris in our oceans due to poor waste management and lack of infrastructure. Most intriguing is the journey of these flip flops, carried by the currents to our beaches, ending up as a significant part of marine debris.
But it's not all doom and gloom. Ocean Sole is transforming this crisis into an opportunity. Hear how this organization gives new life to discarded flip flops by turning them into breathtaking pieces of art. Discover the unique challenges and innovations involved in this process, and the uplifting impact it has on local communities. From providing jobs to promoting environmental awareness, this inspiring tale of turning waste into wonder will leave you in awe. Join us in this inspiring journey as we learn how art and sustainability can come together to make a difference. You're definitely going to say, "Wow, I didn't know that!"
Things that make you say "Wow"! For more episodes and additional information visit the Two Chicks and a Hoewebsite and our Facebook page. Big thanks to our Producer, Casey Kennedy.
Speaker 1:
There are thongs in Australia, jandals in Japan, slops in South Africa, chinalis in the Philippines and Puerto Rico. It's Junk class. On the east coast of the United States they're called click-clacks or clam diggers. I've heard friends call them goaheads. I don't know where that one came from. Archeologists have even discovered an ancient Egyptian pair made from leather dating back to approximately 3,500 years ago.
Speaker 1:
Well, I call them flip flops and I love my flip flops. I've been wearing them for years and even wear them in the winter. Yeah, I'm the one that wears them with socks, but I do have the luxury of having a choice of shoes. I could wear tennis shoes when it gets cold if I'd like, but over 3 billion people can only afford that one type of shoe, the flip flop. And, as our next guest has said, they hang on to them, they fix them, they duct tape them, they mend them and then they usually discard them. The average lifespan of a flip flop is about two years. Well then, what happens to them? They're thrown away, but so many of them end up in the ocean due to poor waste management, stormwater discharge or littering.
Speaker 1:
Flip flops are among the top 10 items of marine debris found on beaches. The numbers are staggering. Some estimates suggest that over 200 million flip flops are discarded globally each year and, because of the ocean currents, tons of them wash up on the East African beaches. Hi everybody, it's Vanessa from Two Chicks and a Ho, the podcast that talks to amazing people doing wonderful things for the world, and today we're chatting with one of those people.
Speaker 1:
Globally, 3 billion people a year purchase new flip flops and once they are used, most are discarded in dumpsters and waterways, eventually making it to the oceans. And they're so popular because they are affordable options for shoes. They're made from ethylene, vinyl acetate and other plastics that do not biodegrade but they do photodegrade, meaning that they break down into smaller and smaller pieces, adding to our plastic soup pollution in the oceans. Today, on Two Chicks and a Ho, we're talking with Erin Smith, the CEO, or the chief soulmate, of an organization that is working on alleviating this problem of discarded flip flops. Hi, erin, welcome to Two Chicks and a Ho. Thank you so much for being with us here today.
Speaker 2:
Thank you so much for having me really honored to be here. Thanks.
Speaker 1:
So tell me, tell me about this incredible program that's coming out of Kenya Ocean Soul, ocean Soul. That's a big question, isn't?
Speaker 2:
it, yeah, well, no, it's a good one. So, yes, ocean Soul and we play on the word soul in terms of the foot soul and it is a. We're a social enterprise in Kenya that was founded many years ago but has morphed into more of a global brand. We started off as a small project through the founder and trying to just help some local women create some artifacts based on flip flops and other trash that they'd found in the sea, and it's now grown into literally a global brand where we are fulfilling online and selling, you know, from Australia to to, you know, kind of Arkansas, and to, you know, japan, to everywhere, brazil. So it's great.
Speaker 1:
So I understand I had read on your website that the origin of this incredible program started with a turtle hatching project.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so basically what happened is in North there's an archipelago of Kenya that goes all the way from Kenya up to Somalia and in there there's some island called Kewayu. On that island it is a notorious sea, you know, turtle nesting area, and Julie Church, who's our founder, was working for, I think, wwf at the time and witnessed all the local ladies cleaning the beaches and, you know, went down there and said you know what's happening. She said will these sea turtles come? And our you know our beaches are so dirty, not only with flip flops but toothbrushes and other types of plastic that we're used to seeing. And they were cleaning up the beaches for the sea turtles. But what Julie observed was that the ladies were taking the flip flops and using those as kind of toys or play things with their children and that kind of with the local ladies kind of started the whole idea of okay, first of all, why are there so many flip flops and, second of all, what can we do with them both to make something out of them also to help that local community?
Speaker 1:
Wow, wow. So I have seen myself in Congo the children taking anything. There is no garbage, they take everything and make something out of it. And toys, yes, yes.
Speaker 2:
So they're very resourceful in that way and you know, especially in the mothers, you know there's not, as you know, not a lot of income and an opportunity to buy those types of toys for them. So they're really resourceful in trying to find anything.
Speaker 1:
So, Erin, where do all these flip flops come from? I mean, okay, you know there's three billion flip flops, but they're not all in Kenya.
Speaker 2:
No, they're not. So what is where did we call it? What the flip flop, right? So the big issue is especially people. I think in kind of first world markets or you know kind of modern economies, we use flip flops as a you know kind of fashion footwear. What's happened is you know kind of in more hot emerging markets where you know people are living below the poverty line and it's quite there's a direct correlation almost with the amount of flip flops that are sold and the amount of people in poverty, because it is in a very affordable shoe. So this is a shoe that's produced mostly in China or India or even in Kenya.
Speaker 2:
We have them. They're in markets that can fulfill the demand. Most of these individuals you know we've done some studies have two shoes a church shoe and some flip flops. They probably purchased flip flops two or three times a year because they break down because they're so cheaply made. So it's kind of an ugly business as well. There's a whole backstory in terms of the flip flop market in these, how they're made for this level of affordability, but they're from. So if you kind of take that and map the world, especially below the equator, you know where you do have high human population, emerging markets, hot, you know hot weather. That's where you see the abundance of flip flops, and so I can tell you how they kind of get to the ocean too. Yes, please do that yes.
Speaker 2:
Yes. So what happens is is, you know these individuals they're not sitting there throwing flip flops into the sea and you know throwing them into the waterways and you know, purposely trashing earth. You know they are disposing of them, you know, in a very humble and honored way. However, these countries don't have the infrastructure to deal with the volume and particularly this type of medium, which is this rubber base, as you said in your introduction. You know kind of a very almost lethalish kind of rubber, and so they clog waterways, hugely hazardous to in these villages, because, as you've been there, you know there's not that infrastructure.
Speaker 2:
These flip flops get caught up in rains and waters and flooding, they block clean water access, they block sewage. In Ethiopia I think it was in 2017, there was a huge landslide that killed hundreds of people in Ethiopia and if they went back and looked at it, it was full of rubber. So, whether it was tires or flip flops or anything, that's what causes because they're so heavy. So these, yeah, these flip flops find their way through villages, through these waterways, through these rains, into rivers, into, and then they go out into the ocean. And it's funny. I've been to Haiti, I've been to Guatemala and I've been, you know Kenya, obviously we've studied, and I was just going down to Columbia and what happens is, if you follow where the sea turtles are hatching because the marine life returns and they follow the tide, so does the trash, and that is why you find a lot of times you'll find a correlation where you see the sea turtles hatching and an abundance of flip flops and or other types of garbage on those same beaches.
Yes, yeah, you know, to use your garden. We've been hoeing away trying to find why is this? Because that was my first question when I kind of got involved was we need to answer this question? Why are there so many? And so we really I've worked with an anthropologist from London. We've, like, done some studies. We've, you know, just kind of I've looked at, you know, marine research, tidal things, and sure enough, if you overlay kind of the data and volumes of where these tides are and where this abundance of, you know, sea life is moving around our oceans, sure enough that's when you see equal amount of trash.
Speaker 1:
Wow, so everything. So where the turtles are going, the trash follows.
Speaker 2:
The trash follows. It all goes together Wow.
Speaker 1:
Okay, so eventually this is ending up on the East African coasts.
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
So the tide to Kenya and Somalia, because actually a little bit north of us as well we are on a big tidal, big, huge kind of Indian Ocean tide that really starts kind of down in Indonesia and kind of works its way and you can kind of look on these marine maps and see these tides, and so we have a big tide that lands on our shores, and so that is one reason that we have all these flip flops on our ocean.
Speaker 2:
The other reason is the same that we've observed in other countries is Mambasa is a co-located town kind of on our Indian Ocean, and also a river there, waterways there. I've seen this in Haiti and again Guatemala and Colombia. They have a dump site there and back in the day when there wasn't 55 million people in Kenya, the dump site was just kind of there, and what's happened over time is the monsoons will come into these dump sites and pull all that trash out, sends it straight out, and then the tides hit it and hit back to our ocean. So that's also one of our problems of why things get to us. And then the other is the classic riverways, villages get flooded and those dump sites or even local village kind of just shoes around in a village will get caught up into a big river and that goes out to the ocean, and then we'll hit a tide and come back. So that's why we have so many.
Speaker 1:
Wow, okay, so the flip flops themselves are coming from across the seas all over Asia and coming through with the currents to the shores, and then it's coming from the waterways locally as well, going out to the ocean and then going back and hitting the shores again. So you know, originally, one of my questions was I'm thinking you're picking up all of these thousands and thousands of flip flops, you must see less and less of them, and I'm thinking you're seeing more and more of them, aren't you?
Speaker 2:
Now more and more with the population increase. I mean, kenya itself in the last 10 years has gone from like 20 million to 55 million people, you know, and this is happening across our continent and some of the other continents. So you know, you see, in terms of that growth, you know, obviously the all the plastic of the consumption is, you know, exponentially growing, flip flops being one of them. So we, what we do, how Ocean Soul has kind of organized itself, is we've taken two approaches. One is, you know, obviously, we clean beaches and you know the ocean mamas and we have what we call. You know they organize themselves and they all, they clean everything on the beaches. And you know we take the flip flops and we buy the. We pay that most of them are paid, you know, as employees and what their job is. But they also go and take some of the other trash to some of the other recycling, whether it's recycling into art or bricks or some other formation, and those ladies have that income.
Speaker 2:
The other thing we do is we've kind of like, if you think of, you know, avon or remember the old encyclopedia sales, you know we have these pyramids where you have like a senior person pop and then they self organize.
Speaker 2:
So what we've done is reach out all over Kenya, especially along the waterways, into the rivers that we have in the big areas, and we have people that organize themselves and get multiple people involved in these communities and they all clean it and then they bring a big stacks of flip flops to us and we buy them. So they make their income through the purchase of the flip flops and this has really worked as a great business model because you know we get direct employment. You know we help communities. They can grow as much as they want, they can be as little as they want, so they can go out and they also reach into their communities and can clean locally where they live, versus just on the ocean. So we kind of combat both of those problems before things get to the oceans but are in the rivers or on the ocean from the beaches.
Speaker 1:
So you're not only giving them jobs, but you're creating stewards for the environment, their own environment. Love it, correct Love it.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, all right.
Speaker 1:
So let's talk. So a few months ago I was in Kenya and I was at the Nairobi Airport and I saw this life size, very colorful baby elephant and I was like, ooh, you know what is this? And I've seen bits and pieces at Curio shops and what have you, but I'd never seen anything like that. And I recognized then that it was. You know, with the signage it was made from flip flops. I saw your guys' name and I was like that's it. I need to dig deeper into this, I need to hoe deeper into this so that listeners can get a better understanding of the impact that you guys are having. But the fact that, again, we know we're hearing about all the plastics, but the flip flop end of things never even imagined. So tell me, erin, you get all these flip flops. Tell me about the artwork that's being created, how?
Speaker 2:
it started was kind of just like I said, a grassroots project where you know, we had local guys kind of making art from this. What we figured out is the artist. There's an artist in community in Kenya and you'll see that in other continents and other countries around the world where you know, and they were carving from wood. So they were cutting down trees in order to make their couriers you know whether it was a wooden giraffe or salad spoons, you know things like that we've all seen in our travels. They became our target employees because obviously we needed just to teach them how to, you know, not cut down trees so save trees and to learn to use this medium of flip flops. So that was really a big aha moment of how we could grow. So this is our artist in community and they're very, very talented, as you've seen.
Speaker 2:
And so what we did? So once we kind of figured out okay, how are we going to carve this stuff? What we do is we bring in these flip flops, you know, kind of by the keyless. We recycle a million and a half flip flops a year, so over a ton of week. So it's huge volume of flip flops that we reform.
Speaker 1:
A ton, a ton a week, that's it for this week, wow, kind of weak More.
Speaker 2:
And so what? You know, we get all these flip-flops that buy or we clean up and we have them. They come to our workshop, we weigh them, we sort them, we clean them. You know we employ ladies. We're about 50% female, 50% male. I really try to make that balance. The women are not natural carvers so we have to work with apprenticeships. But we've had five women kind of really become senior carvers. They wash them, disinfect them and, you know, get them ready, sort them by color for the artisans. Then we, if they're smaller, they get kind of pressed together with some glue, you know, in a big presser and they, you know, basically start with like just think of a size of a foot but like maybe six of them together, you know, in a flip-flop kind of block and they carve some of the smaller bits from that. You know, obviously, as they get bigger.
Speaker 2:
What we use is we also collect. It's called polyurethane. It's very disgusting stuff that you see inside of a refrigerator. So it's this really hazardous kind of horrible like stuff that floats in our beaches. A lot, a lot of like. You know, kind of dump sites use them when refrigerators and containers that are full of your refrigerator. So we have that stuff and that's what will shape the biggest thing. So, like that elephant you saw, they will have pulled all the polyurethane together, they will glue it together into a big lump. They'll carve it with just manual knives into the shape of an elephant and then they layer flip-flops all over it, like two or three layers of that, to create the color and to create the kind of shape, and then they can do all the details around it. So that's the process and you know, obviously we sand it and wash it and carve it and we've made huge things. We've made a life-size Honda car, we have made 18-inch a giraffe, I mean, you know, I can go on with some of the creative things that we've made over the years.
Speaker 1:
And you do custom work right. People want a land rover. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:
So most of our business is kind of I really, you know my background is business like I was in private equity and high-tech and stuff. So I'm constantly diversifying risk because you know we need to be kind of out there. We're a little bit like Girl Scouts, you know. If I'm not hustling cookies, you know we're not able to do good, you know, to our artisans and to the environment. So we're always like on the move for more cookie sales.
Speaker 1:
It's like focus.
Speaker 2:
I get about 50% of our revenue or, you know, income comes from very large installations. We've gone to Saudi Arabia, we're off to China, we're going to Goa I mean we've been all over America where we do either businesses buy big you know pieces for their lobbies or whether we do like an installation of you know kind of a storytelling where it's all marine life, you know things like that. So people get very creative with our art because we can make it and they come up with a theme or a mission. You know that they want to a message that they want to get across, and then we make art for that. So we do that.
Speaker 2:
And then about another 25%, I would say Zoo's, aquariums, boutiques, you know kind of where you'd see them and you know, for sales, yeah, and then the rest is probably online or with tourists coming to Kenya. We have a shop not a shop, but a fulfillment center here in Florida. I spend half my time in Kenya and here because we do all of our US and export stuff out of here in the Northern Florida area.
Speaker 1:
So all the big pieces, whether they're commissioned, let's say you know, in for Saudi Arabia, are they? Is everything made in Kenya, or are you actually taking artisans to those countries for the big commission stuff?
Speaker 2:
So both the answer to that is both. Everything is mostly made in Kenya. You know we will do the design process. We're quite detailed. It's funny I think people are quite surprised how professional we are when we interact with clients, especially in a big installation. We do a lot of designs. We do a lot of sometimes 3D graphic designs. You know we have to estimate, like if there's metal involved in other pieces. So we do, we do all of that and sometimes we're hired, like when we went to Saudi Arabia, we only completed 50% of it and then we go over there with the artist and they complete it. So they're kind of doing it in exhibition, showing people how it's made and people can see the work that's there. So it's either or depending on kind of what you know kind of the client would like to expose.
Speaker 1:
Wow, that's amazing. Wow, so, so you're taking so from Kenya? Then you you're talking about Columbia, and we all know that there's plastic crap everywhere and waterways. Are you taking this model to the next country?
Speaker 2:
Well, so Nirvana to us is to go, like there is a problem in Haiti. Haiti is obviously a very difficult country to work in but, like we are talking right now in Columbia, we have some people that are very keen English gentlemen that live down that way have fallen in love with this. There's a huge flip-flop problem there on the beaches and so we're looking at potentially, if it works, where we can go into another country, teach these artisans. You know the skills they can make maybe indigenous products, so maybe Columbia makes more parents and to you know iguanas and we know we find things that are kind of local, like our safari line is, you know, very Kenya and in you know, east Africa specific, and you'll find things that are relate to that country, make those and then sell those globally to you know our clients and so we're looking at a lot of things that are related to you know our client base and to people.
Speaker 2:
So ideally, that would be perfect world we operate, where social enterprise in Kenya because it's very difficult to be a nonprofit kind of, you know, in a country like that there's a lot of anyhow background and things like that and we did that specifically because a lot of businesses want to buy you know big pieces and they want that tax break or they want to, you know kind of as part of their CSR initiative to support us or do a fundraiser for us. So that's given us some ability to kind of go out and potentially find money to do those kind of projects and go to Columbia, versus kind of us trying to self-fund it from you know selling cookies, if you will.
Speaker 1:
Right, wow, wow, so you're coming, so you're actually in America already. You're in Florida, but not with a shot per se, okay, but that's kind of one of your main headquarters, so to speak, for so you know, we're here in Florida.
Speaker 2:
You know I live in Kenya. I live in Caliphia, in the Indian Ocean, in, you know, our workshops in Nairobi and I spend my time back and forth. We're in Florida because my parents, you know getting elderly are here and so we, instead of kind of living in other places, I probably like to live. We're here, and so I set up the fulfillment shop here. So all of our online purchases, things like that all based in in kind of outside of the Jacksonville area. So we're here and, yeah, I come over. I've got a great team here in America. Most of the employees, everybody's in Kenya. Most of these, you know, ladies, are kind of social, you know, working for a nonprofit.
Speaker 1:
On top of the fact that you're taking pollution out, you're making something out of your creating this incredible artwork. You're giving people jobs, you're cleaning up the environment. Then part of your proceeds also go back into marine conservation.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so we try to every year. We, you know, not just cleaning up beaches, but we try to find, you know, a project, you know a lot of its sea turtles. We love, like we're working on a project right now in Kenya where we're trying to get a beach kind of to recognize as a sea turtle haven. So we're working on that. We'll donate money to different projects. We've tried to partner. It was quite interesting. We, we thought at one point we'd make a panda and sell the panda and give it to, like, you know, save the panda or whatever, and it gets the messaging gets a little bit lost. We're very, I think our model is so open in terms of collaboration and partnership and there's so much we can do. We're a bit like a Rubik's Cube, you know. I mean you can spin us, are we?
Speaker 2:
an art yeah so we're a community, you know. Are we like a social impact? Yes, you know, our reconservation, yes, yeah, you know, it becomes that like sometimes and I learned this because I, you know, quite ambitious in doing good it's like it can get lost, you know. So we try to stay with marine conservation, try and try to find a few partners to do that, work with and, you know, hopefully just fund that where we can.
Speaker 1:
Nice, very nice. Yes, I can understand you are. You have kind of your fingers and all the good stuff which I love. Yeah, that's exactly why we wanted to talk with you guys to so tell me I know this is what you're most. You know, it's one of those fluffy questions what's your most popular piece? What's the most popular thing that you guys sell?
Speaker 2:
So I would say the giraffes by far, because they're gorgeous. I think the giraffes are definitely. We have branched out to doing dogs and cats, dogs and cats, and so those do really well, especially in America.
Speaker 1:
American love their dogs.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, we love our dogs, and then the turtles. Turtles do really well from a marine life and sharks. It's funny the East Coast of America is all about the sea turtle and the West Coast is all about sharks, and so it's quite interesting. You know different regions in the different, but by giraffe I'd say giraffes by the farthest you know, or the you know, I mean they're just, our giraffes are beautiful, I mean they're just. They take a life of their own, they have eyelashes, they have these gorgeous, you know faces and you know and and they can you know, for in a room they can kind of be anywhere in a corner, they can move around, you know. So so they're quite. Yeah, definitely a standout piece.
Speaker 2:
Yes, yes, colors always are very standout ish. You know, the colors are always so bright.
Speaker 1:
And so you can see all of it. So, listeners, you can go check out all of these pieces at ocean soul, calm and that's ocean. And S O L E dot com. Check out the giraffes, check out these really custom pieces that they've done life size elephants, the Honda that Aaron was talking about and those two. You can see the artisans at work. There's videos all over the place on the artisans at work and the marine conservation efforts that they're involved in with the turtles. Everything's on their website and it is a great place to peruse for your own shopping gift. Whatever. That is your participation in removing the flip flops from the ocean and our local waterways. Anything else you'd like to share with us?
Speaker 2:
No, but thank you for having me and I just hope you know I love going and talking about ocean soil. As you can tell, I get very passionate about it. I'm so passionate about the people. I think they work really hard, so dedicated, and you know my job is to steward them into a better life. And you know the participation of people. You know purchasing or donating, or I mean people can host a beach cleanup. We'll do that in people's names, you know they can. You know, do meals if they want, because some people gravitate. They don't really aesthetically like our art. They appreciate it but maybe it doesn't fit their house. You know which we get because it's full of color. But you know there's other ways to participate and help and spread the word.
Speaker 1:
So I love it, thank you. Thank you for sharing that, because you're right. Sometimes, you know, art is in the eye of the beholder, is it not? Yes, good Again, oceansoulcom.
Speaker 1:
There are some really cool things happening that one day might phase out the use of ethylene vinyl acetate that is used to make flip flops and ending up in the oceans. For example, adidas is experimenting with renewable materials. They are collaborating with Parley for the oceans, using illegal deep sea gill nets and recycled ocean plastics to make shoes. They're also experimenting with a material called AM silk, creating biodegradable shoes packaged along with an enzyme solution so that, when owners are done with their sneakers, they can dissolve them. That's fascinating. It may be a while before these shoes find their way to 3 billion flip-flop wearers, but I find it hopeful that mega companies like Adidas and, I hope, so many more, are working on solutions to clean up ocean plastic pollution. Check out Oceansoul's website to see the beautiful art being created by some of the 3 billion a year purchase flip flops Art that supports local Kenyan artisans, cleans up beaches, provides jobs, creates environmental stewardship, brings awareness to ocean pollution and inspires hope. Oceansoul, that's S-O-L-Ecom. Thanks for listening. I hope you tell your friends and take care of each other.