Exclusive | Microplastics are everywhere new device yanks them from your laundry

Not to be knit-picky, but laundry is a major contributor to microplastic pollution.Synthetic fabrics like polyester and nylon shed tiny fibers during the wash cycle that can pass through standard wastewater treatment and end up in waterways.Now, three Case Western Reserve University engineering alumni have fabricated a special washing machine filtration system to capture microplastics.CLEANR technology is rolling out at three universities while selling online at $249 for home use.“It just turned into this project where we realized [that] microplastics seemed like they’re going to be a big issue,” CLEANR co-founder and CEO Max Pennington, 24, told The Post.

“We were passionate about [spending] our free time, really, whenever we could, to develop this technology.”Microplastics are a pressing problem because they are literally everywhere — from personal care products to car tires and even food and water.These minute particles have been linked to a laundry list of concerns, including a higher risk of heart attack, stroke and certain cancers and potential damage to reproductive, digestive and respiratory health.Pennington and his fellow Sigma Chi fraternity brothers David Dillman and Chip Miller took their bright idea to Sears think[box], a 50,000-square-foot facility at Case Western in Ohio and one of the largest makerspaces in the US.The Princes of Tide started printing prototypes, which went through the wringer.“They actually flooded their mother’s kitchen,” recalled Terry Moore, executive chairman of CLEANR.“Then they were trying it out in the washing machine in their fraternity house, and it was working somewhat,” he continued, “but then they found out it really didn’t work when the baseball players threw all their wash in there, with all the dirt and gravel.”The grime-fighting trio turned to nature to iron out their issues.They thought about how manta rays use vortex dynamics to keep their gills from clogging while filtering food from ...