The Earth Prize 2026: Vote for the Global Winner by 27 May

Plastic pollution doesn’t just disappear, it breaks into tiny pieces that stay in our environment. I wanted to create something that could help tackle that problem directly. Eco Purge is designed to both replace plastic and help remove existing microplastics, and this is just the beginning , and I hope it can become a scalable solution that makes a real difference.

I didn't choose this problem, it chose me. Growing up in Naivasha, my bronchitis got bad enough that I stopped thinking of air pollution as an environmental issue and started thinking of it as something being done to us. HewaSafi is our answer to that. Fredrick Njoroge Kariuki

The view from our tent window is what keeps us always motivated. The large amount of rubble and the lack of accessible rebuilding solutions inspire us to work on this project. The solution is decentralised, low-cost and relies on locally available materials. It’s designed to be replicated by communities without heavy machinery or specialised infrastructure, and turn what was once destruction into a starting point for hope. Tala Mousa

Winning The Earth Prize is incredibly meaningful for us, because it validates a problem that is often invisible but affects communities across India every day. Plas-Stick was designed to be simple, affordable and accessible, and this support allows us to take it beyond pilot schools and scale it to many more communities that need it most!. Vivaan Chhawchharia, Ariana Agarwal and Avyana Mehta

Seeing how important hornbills are to forests made me realize how urgent it is to protect them. Winning the Earth Prize gives me the chance to scale this work by expanding nest deployment and partnering with local communities to create long-term solutions for both wildlife and the forests they sustain. Proud Tangkaravakoon

Seeing how sargassum was taking over our beaches made me realise how urgent the problem had become. Winning The Earth Prize gives me the chance to further develop SargaTex PR and scale a solution that turns waste into materials that are better for both people and the planet. Helena do Rego

We started by trying to solve a problem we experienced ourselves, but quickly realised it was much bigger than that. Something as small as a bandage is used by millions of people every day, yet it creates waste and doesn’t always support healing. Winning The Earth Prize gives us the chance to bring Hada into real world use and solve an exponential problem: the human plastic dependency. Bernardo Renner and Ísis Valentin