Is this a good idea

It sounds like a cool idea, but it won't work.
RC submarines aren't made to haul anything, to make your idea possible, you would need thousands of custom made RC subs. You can't get that good of a connection in the ocean, people are stupid and will lose submarines, or just mess around with them, theft or vandalism is a serious threat... whole bunch of RC subs with valuable parts, out in the middle of the ocean, no proper security... easy way for criminals to make money.

So far using ships is the best we've got. It's more cost effective.

A better idea would be letting people access satellite feeds that are above the sea and let people mark polluted areas.
Satellites nowadays are crazy good. Just let people access ones over the oceans, no access over land for the sake of privacy and you get an army of analyzers cheap.

No. Its not a good idea. Sounds good... but ignores all the practical realities of how it all would work (submarines are highly complicated and almost always sink when they fail).

I suspect that it would actually increase the amount of trash in the ocean.

We can clean up ocean trash with surface ships and barges. Much more cost effective and feasible than submarines.

the submarines would end up bein cheapest poor design crap because government program and cut costs

They would continually fail and would end up bein the very ocean trash they swore to eliminate

As long as no one stole or vandalized them. Maybe have them locked up and have a volunteer there during appropriate hours to sign them in/out.

Sounds kind of fun actually, I think people might go for it. Enough to make it worth trying anyway. As other people said, probably expensive, but maybe you could find a benefactor or raise money. You might not even have to have prizes. I don't think people who go out and pick up trash on the beach/in the city usually get anything for it. Plus with this you have a novelty factor.

Sounds like a good idea. I remember reading a story about an elementary school student inventing a new design of sandbags to keep back dangerous tides.

And that's probably how all these third party delivery services started, they found a way to offer delivery to places that wouldn't normally deliver and gave delivery drivers a source of income while making money for the company

I guess you'd have to consider things like sharks munching on em or whatever though, collateral damage. And there'd have to be a source of income, unless a government agency is funded to be able to pay people

Keep working with your idea, you can always present it to somebody. Look at Elon Musk for inspiration

Idk if solar panels would work under the sea. It sounds like it could work but no one would probably do it. Even climate change protesters wouldnt do that

and who is going to pay for this? the government? business? no matter who pays for it your cost as a consumer will rise, in taxes or price of products you buy

People will cheat the system by dumping more waste in order to collect it.

Over here they were desperate to get rid of cane toads (invasive species) so they started paying people to kill them. People ended up breeding them to to exploit the scheme and it made the problem worse.

Your idea is fantastic but sadly there are a lots of pieces of shit out there who relentlessly make the world worse until the day they die. They ruin fantastic ideas like this.

Great idea for scamming environmentally conscious people who don't understand numbers.

It's certainly an innovative idea. Idk how practical it is, but it sounds really cool.