Keep it Clean

CLEANR is testing its tornado-shaped VORTX filters on 120 coin-operated washers at a major university.

Frat bros take on microplastics

YSN Staff 

Last week we told you about Samsung’s efforts to keep laundry-born microplastics out of the environment. 

Now comes word of a trio of Sigma Chi fraternity brothers who are joining the fight to keep our oceans — and our bodies — free of these minute particles. 

The partners, each an engineering graduate of Case Western Reserve University, have developed an external filter for washers called CLEANR that removes over 90% of microplastics from laundry wastewater. The system employs VORTX technology, based on the same principle that clears the gills of manta rays, and the product’s tornado-shaped filters are able to screen out particles as small as 50 microns, or the width of a fine strand of hair, the inventors said. 

The co-founders further estimate that one CLEANR filter can keep the equivalent of 56 credit cards of plastic out of the ecosystem each year. 

Final Exam 

To put the concept to the test, the team has fitted 120 commercial washers with CLEANR filters on the campus of their alma mater, and hopes to bring the accessory to colleges countrywide. 

“By focusing on washing machines, U.S. universities can join in stopping up to a third of microplastics from entering our waterways,” said CEO and co-founder Max Pennington. “Our filtering technology makes the job almost as simple and easy as removing lint from a dryer for university communities and makes a measurable impact on microplastic emissions.” 

The company is also selling the filters direct to the public for $300 a unit. 

According to CLEANR, microplastics are increasingly associated with major human health risks, including heart disease, digestive cancer and reproductive disorders, and often degrade into nano-plastics, which are small enough to pass through the blood-brain barrier and can slip through downstream water treatment filters. 

Governments are also taking notice of the health risk. To date, France now requires new washers to feature filters that can capture microfibers, and New Jersey’s State Senate has introduced a similar measure that would go into effect in 2030, the New York Post reported.  

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