February 5, 2023, 12:00 AM Mountain Standard Time (updated 6/23/24)
GILBERT, Ariz. — Cleyx LLC, an engineering and design firm focused on innovation and sustainability, based in Arizona, was founded by an environmentally conscious team focusing on the impacts of pollution and climate change. These issues became the driving factors behind several inventions the company has conceived over the years and we are excited to announce Cleyx’s latest innovation to see the market. Cleyx is releasing the patent-pending Rover™, a refillable roll-on for all types of skincare products. Rover fights plastic waste by pairing with a new line of refillable and biodegradable skincare pods called Rove™. GET READY TO ROLL!
Cleyx’s founder, Mory Diané, was born in Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) and moved to the US as a teenager. As an MBA and engineer, with years of experience in the infrastructure industry, he has collaborated with multiple sectors including environmental protection agencies, innovative nuclear waste management, and advanced technologies for the production of carbon-free energy. However, Mory felt that he had missed one important issue which is the single-use-plastic crisis! Plastic waste stares us in the face daily, in our home trash bins, out on the side of the road, while taking a stroll at the park, and even on our beaches. He asked himself, how can I become part of a solution that can positively affect the world?
“In Africa growing up, I saw some cities struggle with how to manage their single-use plastic wastes. Then I came to the US and saw that it is a problem here as well, and in fact in many other parts of the world. This was eye-opening and really showed me how prolific this issue is,” Mory said, as he expressed his commitment to help solve this issue.
Mory explained that Cleyx was created to solve several problems plaguing society today, from alleviating consumers’ pain points with common household products to eliminating CO2 emissions and energy poverty through new green infrastructure projects. But currently, the company is tackling the single-use plastics crisis. Plastics provide us with many benefits and the company’s philosophy is not about banning or eradicating plastics, rather, it is to create new beneficial habits and promote alternatives and new positive trends that mitigate our use of plastics, so our society can truly become circular.
The voracious consumption of grey plastics which are fossil fuel-based could be replaced with green alternatives such as plant-based materials including bio-plastics. However, even for those it is important to scrutinize the entire life cycle, essentially adopting a cradle-to-the-grave attitude. By being critical of this, it is possible to better discern how truly green a material is in case it depends on lots of grey resources, for example, it may be manufactured using fossil fuel energy, and its shipping and transport may depend on non-renewable energy. In some cases, a green material becomes grey because of such factors.
Consumers can feel trapped when considering all of this, but they have the power to limit their consumption, focus on reuse to reduce all sorts of wastes (both grey and green), and most of all advocate to their favorite companies to become more circular. One industry in particular that is the topic of this interview and produces a lot of single-use plastics with limited alternatives for environmentally conscious consumers, is the personal care and hygiene industry which includes cosmetics. That industry can benefit from a refreshing approach to its plastic manufacturing, product sales, and use. To that end, Cleyx has set a goal to alleviate the problem by focusing its efforts on an eco-friendly solution for consumers, retailers, and manufacturers.
Therefore, for the past 4 years, Cleyx has worked on a revolutionary device to shift the tides on single-use plastic pollution. This device, the “Rover”, is a handheld refillable roll-on for multiple types of personal care products. A roll-on was ideal as a form factor because it could be engineered to accommodate different personal care product compositions, even those that typically must be applied to the body by hand. Cleyx created a device that can be used with lotions, creams, powders, gels, sticks, and even oil-based products. On top of that, they updated the traditional roll-on mechanism to include a massage feature. The aim was to create a dispenser that is reusable, versatile, and sanitary, all while being practical, intuitive, and stylish to help solve the issue of single-use plastic packaging for the personal care product market.
As we all use personal hygiene products, why not do so in a manner that does not harm the environment? With Rover, consumers can use the skincare product of their choice such as cream deodorants in an eco-friendly manner. The device is great for those who want to make or purchase sustainable personal care products and need a versatile and eco-friendly dispenser. But while the device is ideal for those who make their own skincare products, for a large portion of the market, it would be nonsensical to purchase a single-use personal care product, simply to transfer the content into Rover. For this reason, we have our Rove line of skincare products and partner with other skincare brands to other their products in our refill pods. There needs to be a shift in the industry at large towards a refill and reuse model and Rover has a way to solve this issue through partnerships with traditional suppliers of personal care products.
Cleyx is aware of a few similar device brands on the market, but there are three main issues:
1. The brands work independently; they do not partner with personal care product brands so their reach is limited; essentially, they only perform a niche purpose on the market.
2. They have a business model focused on refills exclusive to their own brands so their offering is limited. They exclude customers who prefer other personal care products.
3. Their refills are typically made of plastics! While they try to reduce the impact of single-use plastics, they also contribute to the problem, because their empty refill pods can end up in landfills.
Cleyx aims to create a new and ubiquitous standard as opposed to a niche. The Rover was created based on design-thinking fundamentals to set empathy for the consumer and the environment as a priority. Rover is unique because consumers can put whatever they want in it; they are not limited to one brand of products or cosmetics. Rover can be easily cleaned (manually or in a dishwasher) to change the product inside whenever the user desires. The device is highly modular and will feature different rollers for different purposes (cream, face, ice, etc.) The dispensing mechanism is semi-automatic in that it does not require the manual actuation of a wheel to release and apply the content as most conventional applicators require. Simply, roll on the device and it supplies its content, and this works even for creams, balms, and sticks, which is one of Rover’s innovative features being patented. Rover is industrially recyclable and compostable which promotes a closed-loop system. Further, the biodegradable and biogenic refill pods are paper-based so they are at-home compostable.
Ensuring that Rover could be made of readily biodegradable materials was an essential requirement in approaching manufacturers to make Rover a truly circular product. This ensures a long-term cycle of sustainability can be maintained to change the current plastic pollution situation. Mory said he hopes the invention will make consumers more conscious and convince personal care product brands and dispenser manufacturers to shift away from single-use plastics. One of Cleyx’s primary goals is therefore to partner with sustainable skincare brands so they can offer their products in refill pods that fit in Rover. This can help the industry make the shift to the refill and reuse model, and offer consumers their favorite brands to choose from.
With the Rover roll-on device, customers will have the ability to manually refill the device with products of their choice if they make their own, and if they prefer subscriptions, they will be able to buy their favorite products in disposable and compostable refill pods. Rover will be the first marketable skincare product from Cleyx and more information including pictures can be found on cleyx.com/rover. However, the team at Cleyx is working on other innovative and sustainable engineering designs for products in other industries including an innovative process for green hydrogen production.
Cleyx aspires to help resolve critical sustainability issues plaguing our society and for several years Mory has looked for the best way to make a difference; he shared:
“We are what the future generations grow beyond; we ought to set an example for them and leave them greener pastures for a better tomorrow.”
