Notpla among 2022 Earthshot winners

In Boston, a promising bioplastic was among the five 2022 Earthshot Prize Winners announced to much fanfare amid a US visit by Prince William and his wife Catherine.

The Prince of Wales launched the Earthshot Prize in 2020. The prize will hand out £50 million over 10 years to organizations working to address the world’s most persistent environmental problems.

As one of the winners, Notpla, a UK company developing biodegradable bioplastic from seaweed, will receive £1 million ($1.2 million) in finding.

The other four winners were Mukuru Clean Stoves, which designed an inexpensive, cleaner alternative to pit-cooking that is common practice in Africa but can lead to respiratory problems; Kheyti, an Indian startup that sells kits to help smallholder farmers increase their yield sevenfold; Indigenous Women of the Great Barrier Reef, which applies ancient reef-preservation and -monitoring practices and has trained dozens of women to become rangers; and 44.01, an Omani company that mixes CO₂ with a mineral for sequestration purposes.