Plastiki Rafiki – Friendly Plastic

OUR MISSION

Cleaning up our local environment and empowering communities to earn a living through plastic recycling and creative product design

A Student Led Initiative

Plastiki Rafiki is a non-profit student-led club at the International School of Kenya which is committed to cleaning up our local environment and empowering communities to earn a living by recycling plastic through creative manufacturing techniques and product design. We build all our machines, with the help of the Open Source Plastic Recycling Community, and create all our products in the ISK Fabrication Lab, using a range of plastic molding techniques as well as subtractive manufacturing processes.

Get all your favorite Plastiki Rafiki products right here! All our products are designed by ISK students and manufactured using 100% discarded plastics.

Environment

We help clean and protect our local environment by promoting and sponsoring rubbish collection drives in targeted natural spaces.

Product Design

We create unique products out of waste plastic, using design thinking methodologies.

Building Machines

We manufacture a range of plastic recycling machines adapting open source designs.

The Network

We work together with like minded organizations trying to work towards a cleaner, greener Kenya.

The Recycling Process

Collect & Protect

We collect discarded plastic throughout Kenya. However, rather than getting it from dumpsites, which would be the easiest, we try and focus on rubbish collection from natural areas. Places where rubbish has not yet taken over the environment, where collecting plastic waste can make a visible difference. We hope our actions can help keep these sacred natural spaces pristine and unspoiled and discourage other from polluting them.

Our “collections” are based on the different locations where the plastic rubbish was collected. For example, a product that is part of the “Mt. Kenya Collection” would have been made out of discarded plastic collected from mountain trails while a “Kenya Coast Collection” product would be made out of collected beach and ocean plastic.

Sort & Shred

We sort the plastic into different categories depending on the polymer. We currently work with PET-1, HDPE-2, LDPE-4, PP-5, and PS-6. Every category of plastic has different physical properties and needs to be handled differently when recycling. We then shred the sorted plastic for further processing.

Design & Create

We design and create unique products from the shedded plastic using a range of plastic molding techniques as well as subtractive manufacturing processes. We provide hands on training and support to our network partners and work closely with them to design products and develop molds that meet their need. We take a triple bottom line approach to innovation and are continuously improving our machines and manufacturing processes to make them more environmentally, socially and financially sustainable.