The
Pepsi Refresh Project, a groundbreaking effort to foster innovation in social good, will award more than $20 million this year to fund great ideas that refresh the world. The program launched on January 13 and has already exceeded expectations by receiving the monthly limit of 1,000 submissions in less than seven days with at least one from each state in the U.S. Joining this effort are actors Demi Moore and Kevin Bacon, who have generated their own ideas for Pepsi Refresh and are competing for support in the Pepsi Refresh Celebrity Challenge, which also launches today.
Project Kaisei, ‘Ocean Planet’ in Japanese, is an alliance of ocean lovers, bringing together science, technology, industry, education and the community to raise awareness, and find solutions for, the issue of marine debris pollution in our ocean. Our initial focus is the North Pacific Gyre, or the "Plastic Vortex," where millions of tons of plastic have gathered due to ocean currents and poor garbage management by humans. Our work thus far has found that about 90% of the marine litter is made from plastics, a class of pollution that continues to grow. Given the importance of the ocean to our lives, our goals are to:
1. Quantify the size of this marine debris
2. Understand the potential biological impacts that these synthetic organic polymers may have on aquatic species, ecosystems and humans
3. Prevent further accumulation of marine debris in our ocean
4. Apply new technologies to begin removing this waste.
