Tom Ford Launches A Million Dollar Sustainability Prize And A Watch Made Entirely From Ocean Plastic Waste. The Ocean Plastic watch is already available at tomford.com for $ 995.

The statistics are truly alarming. More than eight million tons of plastic enter the oceans each year, the equivalent of dumping a garbage truck full of the stuff into the seas every minute. By 2050, there will be more plastic in the oceans than fish. “It’s one of the greatest issues facing us: polluting the oceans,” says Tom Ford. “If they die, we’re in big trouble.”

He’s releasing a new watch made from 100 per cent ocean plastic, and he’s also announcing the Tom Ford Plastic Innovation Prize. A $1m award will go to the innovator who designs a scalable replacement for thin-film plastic — the stuff that polybags are made of. The numbers on those are even more startling; up to five trillion are used and instantly discarded each year. A winner will be chosen in 2022, and by 2025, the plan is to bring the product to market.

The sad truth that recycling doesn’t solve the problem. Not all plastic can be recycled, and most of it ends up in landfills and water sources leading to the oceans. Ideally, we need to break this vicious circle before plastic gets there, and the Tom Ford Plastic Innovation Prize could be one of the options. In the meantime, we are content with watches made of oceanic plastic. Each model saves the ocean from 35 plastic bottles: if you sell at least 1,000 copies, it will help save water from about 222 kilograms of garbage.