Irish Student Wins Earth Prize Award For Biodegradable Plastic
- Jun 9
- 1 min read
A teenager who invented a plant-based plastic to tackle microplastics has been crowned the European winner of the 2026 Earth Prize.
Arya Satheesh, 18, developed Eco Purge, a biodegradable plastic prototype designed to replace some everyday plastic while helping break down tiny plastic particles already polluting soil, fresh water and salt water.
Unlike ordinary plastic, which can linger in the environment and break into tiny fragments, Eco Purge is designed to biodegrade safely while carrying enzymes inside the plant-based material. The enzymes remain stable while the product is in use, then are gradually released as the plastic breaks down, allowing them to attack microplastics already present in the surrounding soil or water.
With $12,500 of prize funding from The Earth Prize, she now plans to scale the solution for real-world use in products like packaging and compost bags, making it easier to tackle microplastic pollution on a larger scale.
"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," she said. "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."
The Earth Prize, a Geneva-based non-profit, is an environmental competition for young people aged 13 to 19. Organisers describe it as the world’s largest environmental competition and “ideas incubator” for teenagers, offering mentoring, learning resources and shared funding to help young people develop practical environmental solutions.