Case Western Reserve University is set to install filters to washing machines across campus to reduce microplastic pollution during the laundry cycle.
Microplastics can be found virtually anywhere, and studies have found that wastewater from washing machines is a primary source. As clothing is washed during the laundry cycle, it dispels microplastics in the form of thread-like microfibers that end up circulating through wastewater systems.
"In many lakes and rivers, there are microfibers coming from waste management plants, sewage treatment and washing machines by the trillions daily," plastics pollution scientist and co-founder of 5 Gyres Institute Marcus Eriksen said. "That's a contaminant and the impact frontier is human health."
A single load of laundry can produce millions of microplastics depending on the fabric type, water temperature and wash cycle setting. Microplastics have been found in the human body, and is linked to abdominal pain, respiratory issues and infertility, according to the National Institute of Health.
The CLEANR filtration system was officially launched Tuesday. Designed by three Case Western Reserve University alumni, the filter connects directly to the washing machine hose to catch the microfibers at the source.
"If you don't catch it at the source, they degrade over time, [they] get too small for the water treatment plants to really capture and water treatment plants either goes back into the water system or into the agriculture in terms of sludge," CLEANR Executive Chairman Terry Moore said. "We have a solution that allows you to do something that."
It's cone-shaped filter forms a vortex to separate the microfibers from the water at the source, CLEANR co-founder and CEO Max Pennington said.
"The vortex pushes everything down into the cleaner pod, which is what you change once a week," Pennington said. "So it's like less than 30 seconds of maintenance."
The spiral design of the vortex is inspired by the way manta ray gills filter out pollutants, Pennington said
"Their gills actually create a vortex like structure as they are swimming in the water and that's what keeps their gill from clogging as they feed," he said. "We use a similar structure with our spiral to actually keep our mesh from clogging as it filters out."
Once installed, the CLEANR filter captures as much as 90% of microplastics per wash cycle, according to the company. This adds up to about 56 credit cards-worth of microplastics per filter each year.
"At the university level, we work with them to show how many credit cards all the filters across the campus has removed in a dashboard capability that we have," Pennington said. "For a hundred filters across the course of a year to remove about 5,600 credit cards worth of microplastics on the university campus.
The vortex design makes CLEANR filters unique, Eriksen said.
"CLEANR, what they're doing in washing machines, their technology does not exist," he said. "They're filling a space, a huge need in the market to stop the flow of microfibers."
The filtration system is user friendly, Pennington said. Once the filter is full, it can be pulled out and emptied much like a dryer lint trap.
"You just throw it away, that way it goes into the managed waste stream, and it doesn't go out into the world and into our water, and eventually back into our bodies," Pennington said.
Five filters are up and running on Case Western Reserve University washing machines so far with a campus-wide installation underway. The University of Akron has five of its own filters installed, Pennington said, and the CLEANR team says it's meeting with other universities to expand the products reach further reduce microplastic pollution.
"We really view Cleveland as a potential to be, you know, the grounds zero in the fight against microplastic pollution," Pennington said. "There are solutions that are out there that are easier for people to deal and everyone can make a difference and we're super excited to go at this thing and fight it head on."
