The Endowment for Clean Oceans (ECO) announced Willemijn Peeters, Ocean Ambassador of the Netherlands and the Founding Director of Searious Business has joined ECO’s Entrepreneur Committee that will vet contestants’ plans to remove macro and micro plastics from the world’s oceans.

“I am working to solve the problem of what to do with the plastic before it enters our Ocean, by helping to create a market for alternatives to plastic, and recycled plastics,” said Peeters.

“Just like we need to end the use of single use plastic, we need to replace the manufacture of virgin plastic and replace it with recycled plastics, and as much as possible needs to be plastic recovered from the ocean.”

In July, the Endowment for Clean Oceans (ECO) Announces it’s World-Wide $1 Million & $5 Million Contests for Solutions to Remove Micro and Macro Plastics from the Ocean. The Endowment for Clean Oceans (ECO) puts in place a contest to find a sustainable, globally-deployable technology to remove micro and macro plastics from the world’s ocean. 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 catagories:

  • Corporations & 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.”