A staggering 3 billion people on planet earth wear flip flops as their primary form of shoe as they are so affordable.
Flip Flops ( thongs in Australia ) are made from a combination of Ethylene-Vinyl Acetate and other plastics and they do not biodegrade. They do however photo-degrade, breaking up into smaller and smaller pieces to form part of the plastic soup plaguing our oceans.
The story of Ocean Sole began when marine biologist Julie Church looked for a solution to the flip-flop pollution on Kiwayu Beach in Kenya in the 90's. Since then, Ocean Sole has gone through a journey and now the EVA (ethylene-vinyl acetate) flip-flops are collected from the ocean beaches and turned into pieces of art. This process has not only cleaned up flip-flop pollution from the ocean, but it has also created jobs for locals.