The Ocean Plastic Innovation Challenge, a key component of National Geographic and Sky Ocean Ventures’ partnership to reduce plastic waste and asks problem solvers from around the globe to develop novel solutions to tackle the world’s plastic waste crisis.

More than 9 million tons of plastic waste end up in our oceans each year, and without interventions, this number is expected to almost double to 17 million tons per year by 2025. The Ocean Plastic Innovation Challenge will focus on three strategic ways to address this growing crisis: designing alternatives to single-use plastic, identifying opportunities for industries to address plastic waste throughout supply chains, and effectively communicating the need for action through data visualization.

The three tracks are:

• Design //To design solutions to improve food and beverage packaging and other top ocean-polluting plastics
• Circular Economy // To develop new business models or technology solutions to reduce or eliminate packaging waste
• Data Visualization // To represent a data set related to the global challenge of plastic waste as an original and compelling data visualization

Teams will compete for aggregate prize purses of up to $500,000, and qualified participating teams may have the opportunity to receive a minimum of $1 million in aggregate investment from Sky Ocean Ventures.

Registration is now open. >>

Key dates:

• June 11, 2019 // Initial Submission Deadline
• Week of July 8, 2019 // Finalists Selected
• Week of November 11, 2019 // Finalists’ Submissions Due
• Week of December 9, 2019 // Finalists Pitch Their Solutions to a Panel of Expert Judges
• Week of December 9, 2019 // Winners Announced