Figure 1: CLEANR Founders David Dillman, Chip Miller, and Max Pennington, Photo by Peter Krouse, cleveland.com
CLEVELAND; April 23, 2025 — CLEANR is honored to be featured on the front page of The Plain Dealer, Cleveland’s largest newspaper, for its innovative work tackling microplastic pollution at the largest source: the washing machine.
The in-depth feature from cleveland.com highlights CLEANR’s origins at Case Western Reserve University, where three engineering students, Max Pennington, Chip Miller, and David Dillman, set out to develop a more effective way to prevent microplastics from entering our waterways.
After just over two years of research and development at the university’s Sears think[box], the team is preparing to launch CLEANR for Washing Machines, a high-performance filter powered by CLEANR’s proprietary VORTX technology. Inspired by the way manta rays filter plankton in ocean water, CLEANR’s VORTX technology efficiently suspends and separates microplastics from the water, pushing them into a capture unit called the CLEANR Pod. This nature-inspired design enables a simple, intuitive user experience.
CLEANR for Washing Machines has been third-party certified by The Shaw Institute to remove over 90% of microplastics down to 50 microns in size, offering a practical, user-friendly solution to a global pollution problem. The article also details CLEANR’s installation at Case Western Reserve University, where filters are now operating in residence hall laundry rooms. The article also emphasizes the importance of addressing the estimated 4 billion microplastics that are polluting Lake Erie.
“We’re really excited to put the filter out on the market and do something about it,” said Max Pennington, Co-Founder and CEO of CLEANR.
This front-page coverage marks a major milestone for CLEANR as it launches its first product to consumers. Pre-orders are now live, with units expected to ship later this summer. This technology represents a breakthrough for households, institutions, and communities seeking measurable sustainability solutions.
To read the full article, visit: https://www.cleveland.com/metro/2025/03/the-plain-dealers-front-page-for-march-31-2025.html
About CLEANR
CLEANR builds best-in-class microplastic filters for washing machines that effortlessly remove the largest source of microplastics into the environment. Its technology, VORTX, represents a breakthrough in filtration, with a patent-pending design that is inspired by nature and proven to outperform conventional filtration technologies by over 300%. The company is building a platform filter technology that enables product manufacturers and business customers to materially reduce their microplastic emissions from impacted in-bound and out-bound fluid streams, including residential and commercial washing machine wastewater, in-home water systems, wastewater treatment, textile manufacturing effluents, industrial wastewater, and other sources. www.cleanr.life
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