Uniqueco - the (flipflop) recycling company


	who we are..
	UniquEco, the (Flipflop) Recycling Company, was created out of two people’s passion, (Tahreni Bwanaali and Julie Church), for the ocean, its habitats and creatures and the coastal people of Kenya. Saving turtles, people and the ocean seemed plausible when value could be added to the thousands of flipflops that wash ashore on the Kenyan Coast.
	Julie Church and Tahreni Bwanaali founded UniquEco, in 2005. Both women believe in working with the local people of Africa and recognise the importance of developing business skills at the local level for long-term development. Between 1997 and 2004, Julie Church was spearheading an initiative between World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Kenya Wildlife Service working with the communities of the Reserve to secure the future of the people, habitats and species by promoting sustainable and responsible interaction with the environment. Julie saw children playing with the discarded flip flop off-cuts, turning them into boats using sticks and thorns and soon a children's mobile initiative was born.
	An order from WWF Switzerland for 20,000 flip-flop key rings followed shortly and the initiative developed. The initiative not only addressed the problems of the lack of sustainable income opportunities for the women and youth of the community but also the beach collections had a positive impact on nesting turtles and their hatchlings.