Compared with the thin and cheap pollen car ac filters, this media also has a better feeling, mainly through the use of very special filter layer. It’s the activated carbon layer. Baking soda and carbon embedded filters help to clean the outside air flowing through the vehicle ventilation system. Activated carbon is very soft because it has become a brittle sponge (activated) fundamentally increasing its surface area and filtration capacity. If you wash it, you’ll break it up and keep getting black particles (that’s carbon) until you wash it out completely.