Endowment for Clean Oceans announces contests to remove plastics from ocean

by Endowment for Clean Oceans 11 Aug 2018 20:40 UTC

The design of the Endowment for Clean Oceans (ECO) $1 million contest has been finalized, and we will be making a series of announcements about who will be selected as the judges for our contests to find a sustainable, globally-deployable technology to remove micro and macro plastics from the world's oceans. The contest will accept submissions from around the world.

Given the interest from potential contestants, ECO is making the following changes to the $1 million contest for technology or a plan to remove micro and macro pieces of plastic from the ocean.

There will be three submission categories:

• Corporations and Universities
  
• "Garage" Inventors
  
• Elementary / Secondary Students

The $1 million prize will go to the Corporation and University winner. The "garage inventor" will win a significant investment in his company and technology. The prize for the elementary and secondary student category will be a full scholarship to a school of their choice.

"We must deploy technology to remove micro and macro pieces of plastic from the world's oceans on global scale," said Daniel Perrin, ECO's Founder.

ECO's second contest, to find an economically viable replacement for plastic, is equally important. The winner of that contest will receive a $5 million prize. "We need to prevent new plastic from going into the world's oceans as well as take the plastic already polluting our oceans out," said Perrin. "It's essential, it really can't wait."