Trash is a visible manifestation of the ugly side of human technology. Driving ourselves to produce at the enormous scale we do today, creating materials so durable that they will outlast us for thousands of years, we've created a host of environmental and health problems. Many projects in this challenge study the movement and collection of waste in our ecosystems, such as microplastics in the sea.

This challenge also focuses on sustainability efforts and environmental science, such as the use of algae for biofuels, or investigating environmental toxins using novel technology.