While most of us are at least dimly aware that plastic in the form of polymer microfibers goes into making our clothes; it probably never really even crosses our minds that when we wash them; tiny pieces of plastic make their way into our environment.

But when Max Pennington was a student at Case Western Reserve not so long ago; it certainly occurred to him. So, that's when he and his friends came up with a plan to put a filter on their washing machine to catch plastic residue from the rinse water. After a number of hits and misses, including lots of sudsy soaked floors; they came up with their CLEANR washing machine filtering system that removes microplastic particles before they hit the drain.

Their reasoning is simple; keep plastic particles out of the water, and send them to landfills where they can be safely–or at least more safely–contained.

While research on the dangerous health effects of microplastics is ongoing; they have been linked to a myriad of illnesses including cancer, strokes, heart attacks, and kidney disease. 

So I talked to Max about CLEANR, and how their patented "Vortex" filtering process might one day also be applied to other products like whole home water filters.

Listen now: