The Earthshot Prize has named 15 finalists for 2026, drawn from a database of around 7,000 nominations across 169 countries, with five winners to be announced at the Awards Night in Mumbai, India, on 17 November.

Three of those finalists sit in the Build a Waste-Free World category — the Earthshot most directly tied to the materials and resource management sector: Mother Earth Foundation (Philippines), PFAS-Free France, and South Korea Zero Waste Movement Network.

The operating numbers behind the Philippine entry

Mother Earth Foundation (MEF) works with Philippine cities and island communities to keep plastic and organic waste out of landfills, waterways and the ocean. The group began in 1998, when five women, including current Chairman Sonia Mendoza, organised their neighbours to separate waste, compost organics and convert an empty lot into a community garden.

The model is source-separation based. Households split waste into biodegradable, recyclable and residual streams. Community-run materials recovery facilities collect and sort it. Organics go to composting. Local data identifies which products cannot be recovered and must be redesigned or phased out.

The headline performance figure comes from San Fernando, Pampanga, where a programme co-developed with the city government has achieved up to 89% city-level waste diversion. That diversion rate has held through successive changes in political leadership — a point worth noting for any jurisdiction where waste contracts and programmes reset with each electoral cycle.

MEF works with local governments, barangays, households and waste workers across the Philippines to build systems that prevent waste escaping in the first place, using education, monitoring and policy support to embed the practice rather than run it as a short-term project.

The 2030 commitment

By 2030, MEF aims to establish the Philippines as the first developing country where Zero Waste is the default model for solid waste management, and a template for replication across Southeast Asia. Its stated goal is for over 90% of Philippine cities and municipalities to be implementing zero waste systems or having access to them. That is a commitment with a deadline — Circular Wire will track it.

PFAS-Free France

The second waste-category finalist, PFAS-Free France, is recognised for leading the coalition that secured the world's first national law banning PFAS 'forever chemicals'. The ban has direct material-stream consequences for packaging, textiles and product design across the French market.

South Korea Zero Waste Movement Network

The third finalist has worked for more than thirty years on projects to cut waste and raise South Korea's recycling rate from 2% in 1995 to 95% today — one of the steepest national recycling trajectories on record.

What finalist status delivers

As a 2026 finalist, MEF will receive Earthshot Prize support to secure flexible, multi-year funding and climate finance, access to funders and implementation partners, and backing to develop a Zero Waste Hub consolidating training and community enterprise. Finalist status is not the award itself; it is a funding and scaling pipeline ahead of the Council's decision.

Each finalist will be considered by Prince William and fellow members of The Earthshot Prize Council. Its membership: Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah; Cate Blanchett; Indra Nooyi; José Andrés; Christiana Figueres; Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim; Wanjira Mathai; Nemonte Nenquimo; Gisele Bündchen; Luisa Neubauer; Naoko Yamazaki; Ernest Gibson; and Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

Commenting on the finalists, Prince William, President and Founder of The Earthshot Prize, said: "Every year, our finalists give me renewed optimism."

"They show us that, even as the environmental challenges remain urgent, extraordinary people around the world are already proving that progress is possible."

"Seeing solutions work gives us all confidence to act. When they succeed, they inspire others and accelerate change."

The finalists fall into one of five Earthshots: Protect and Restore Nature, Clean Our Air, Revive Our Oceans, Build a Waste-Free World and Fix Our Climate.

The decision point comes on 17 November in Mumbai, where the Council names five winners. Until then, the waste category's three finalists carry verifiable diversion and recycling numbers — 89% city-level diversion in San Fernando, 95% national recycling in South Korea, and a French PFAS ban already in statute — that the sector can benchmark against.