Novozymes
Revolutionize Your Bathroom Cleaning with Microbes
John Harp
Love it or hate it, cleaning our homes is a chore. Whatever you are feeling towards cleaning, for most, it is a required task that takes up an after-work or weekend routine. One of the most dreaded areas to clean is the bathroom; you want it clean but don’t want to clean it.
There are numerous challenging areas to clean in the bathroom, whether it is the nooks and crannies of grout and sealant or items such as toilet bowls, showers, tubs, sinks, and countertops. Each of these places can harbor undesirable soils and stains. Various cleaning products are available to tackle these soils; some, if not most, use harsh chemicals to get the job done.
However, these harsh chemistries can immediately impact our health (coughing) or the healthy and necessary microbial flora in, on, and around us. Further, the benefits of cleaning with chemistry alone are generally short-lived. The chemicals eventually evaporate, exposing the cleaned surfaces to harbor new soils and germs.
In short, we’re now learning that chemistry alone is great at cleaning on a surface level but does not provide the benefits of a thorough, deep clean.
Cleaner for Longer with Microbes
What if there was a way to deep clean your bathroom and keep it cleaner for longer? Or what if a sustainable solution could be used to tackle the stains in grout to bring back its original color?
The key is to introduce beneficial cleaning microbes to your cleaning routine. With strong, science-backed data from thorough experimental procedures, Novozymes has demonstrated that microbial solutions can also clean bathroom stains, or sometimes even better than traditional cleaning chemistries.
So, what exactly can microbes do for cleaning? Because they are extremely tiny, they remain behind after using the product. These microbes will remain in the grout, nooks, and crannies alongside other organic soils that surfactants or other cleaning agents leave behind. Upon exposure to organic soils, microbes can degrade them by secreting enzymes, leveraging their natural process.
Using microbes can also reduce the frequency of cleaning because of the continuous microbial action in breaking down soils and preventing extreme soil buildup.
A Touch of Beneficial Microbes to Restore the Balance
A significant and common concern we hear is the fear of using microbes to clean. “Aren’t we supposed to remove the microbes instead of using them to clean?”
As more discoveries are made, we are learning that it is important to keep microbes (and, more importantly, a little dirt) in our lives; they help keep our bodies and environments balanced.
The reality is that microbes have been living in our homes alongside us ever since humans sought the protection of four walls and a roof. Despite this, at the turn of the 20th century, these invisible-to-the-naked-eye creatures were feared, and some spent significant efforts trying to disinfect or keep our environment as sterile as possible. Certainly, some microbes need to be kept at bay. However, as we become more aware of our environment and what is in it, we learn that there is a time and place for using disinfectants and other harsh cleaning products.
Indeed, as more discoveries are made, we are learning that it is important to keep microbes (and, more importantly, a little dirt) in our lives; they help keep our bodies and environments balanced. Further, foods such as dietary supplements, teas, kombucha, and other foods introduce microbes (probiotics) into the food chain to promote health and well-being. Keeping microbes around us is not just a revolution but a health evolution.
With increasing consumer awareness that we are all surrounded by microbiome (the collection of microbes in an environment), it is becoming exceedingly important to embrace sustainable microbial cleaning technologies—rather than solutions that destroy all microbes indiscriminately—if we want to embrace a healthy home and planet.
