Cleaning - how does it work?
Pure Effect uses biotechnology – cleaning with bacteria – to freshen textiles, remove stains, and eliminate unpleasant odors. This applies to both garment care, hard-to-wash items, and cleaning for the home, including both hard and textile surfaces. To reduce unnecessary washing, Pure Effect also introduces the "low-wash" concept, encouraging fewer washes while maintaining cleanliness and freshness.
Our principle: to work with nature
The bacteria in our textile care and home cleaning products quickly and efficiently break down organic matter—our most common dirt—without producing unpleasant odors as a side effect. When we add our bacteria, we essentially take control of a surface and replace an existing microbial ecosystem with a new one. A microbial ecosystem is always present unless the surface has been intentionally sterilized. This fact is something we often don’t think about unless the opportunistic ecosystem attracts attention, for example, by producing foul odors.
With biotechnology, we can tailor a beneficial ecosystem and make use of the “tame” bacteria’s own biological weapons, developed specifically to fight other bacteria. In our case, the type of bacteria that causes problems.
It gets clean, but it doesn’t become bacteria-free. On the contrary. And that's a good thing! We need a healthy bacterial flora in our environment, especially to calibrate our immune system. Chemicals, however, have their role. With chemical cleaning agents, we can disinfect; wiping out all life forms, both friends and enemies. This is absolutely necessary in some contexts—such as in an operating room. But for everyday use, this is not the best solution for hygiene, health, or the environment.
Read more about how hospitals use biotechnological cleaning to reduce the occurrence of resistant, infectious hospital bacteria in the articles Probiotic-Based Sanitation in the Built Environment - An Alternative to Chemical Disinfectants and ESKAPEE Pathogen Biofilm Control on Surfaces with Probiotic Lactobacillaceae and Bacillus species.
The dirt in our homes has a distinctive feature; it consists largely of fat. This is something we can take full advantage of with biotechnology-based cleaning products. Our bacteria produce specialized enzymes that efficiently break down fat molecules. The fat, which acts as mortar in other dirt, is broken down into its components (from triglycerides to glycerol and free fatty acids) through enzymatic hydrolysis.
When the organic dirt is consumed by our microorganisms, it disappears instead of being moved around, encapsulated, or sucked up (for transport to a treatment plant via wastewater).
Our common problem: odor!
Clothes are often thrown into the washing machine without actually being dirty (in the sense of being heavily sweaty, muddy, or stained with food). In many cases, it's more about washing away the feeling of dirt after a long day. Or as a way to “clean up” clothes by putting them in the laundry basket. The experience of cleanliness has evolved into a strong emotional need, far beyond the reasonable requirement for personal hygiene. Therefore, we wash much more and much more often than necessary.
But we also wash to eliminate any traces of bad smell. Smell, or the fear of smelling, is a real problem that requires action, because it's largely our nose that determines what we perceive as clean. And smell is, as we know, both shameful and socially unacceptable. Lea
Odor occurs as soon as bacteria begin to break down organic material (such as sweat, fat, and skin flakes). The degradation process, if performed by the wrong types of bacteria, releases foul-smelling substances that are volatile and spread through the air.
However, the biotechnological method is particularly effective when it comes to solving problems caused by bacteria, like odor. It’s bacteria fighting bacteria – and on our side, we have Bacillus subtilis, a powerful veteran in biotechnical odor removal. By misting the clothes, we transfer a cleaning ecosystem to the textiles, directly to the places where the problems arise.
Our method: Low-wash
Pure Effect’s products break down dirt and combat odor in a "strategic" way, reducing the need to wash the entire garment. When we machine wash less, we definitely extend the lifespan of clothes. Washing is often the strongest stress a garment ever faces.
Most people have experienced washing mishaps; colors lose their vibrancy, fits distort, elastic materials stiffen, and clothes shrink. The result is often yet another contribution to the growing mountain of textile waste. The textile and fashion industry today exerts a very large environmental impact. Every step in the making of a garment creates new environmental problems, often in countries with low capacity to manage them.
"Low-wash"—washing less—is an important tool on the path to a more sustainable lifestyle, showing greater care for what we already own. Low-wash is a method that creates real conditions for reduced consumption. Reduced chemical use in everyday life, decreased microplastic emissions, and lower water and energy consumption are a bonus!
Sinner's Circle
The Sinner's Circle is often used to illustrate the principle of cleaning. The different sections of the circle chart represent the interacting factors that are always necessary to get something clean—anything. The circle clarifies the relationship between mechanical processing, chemistry, temperature, and time. Different types of solutions result in 'pie slices' of varying sizes, but always in a constant relationship to each other.
For example, one might imagine that very high temperatures result in a relatively smaller need for time, chemistry, or mechanical work. Or that large amounts of chemistry, in turn, reduce the need for one or more of the other factors.
Consequently: If one 'pie slice' is increased or decreased, the others must necessarily increase or decrease in size as well. The reasoning is flawless and rational—but only within the realm of chemical solutions. Biotechnology fundamentally changes the assumptions.
This happens in several ways:
Chemistry
Biotechnology reduces the need for chemical solutions. Phasing out chemicals—a central driving force for Pure Effect—entails both obvious, immediate, and powerful efforts for a better environment. It is our most important contribution. But the benefits are numerous and almost immeasurable. When the “pie slice of chemistry” is replaced with biotechnology, the conditions for all other slices change. Biotechnology represents a radical shift in the method of cleaning—and in our perception of what deep cleaning truly means.
Temperature
Biotechnology means that detergents and cleaning products contain a living bacterial culture and their enzymes. Neither the living cells nor their products survive high temperatures—on the contrary, they are exclusively active at relatively low temperatures. Biotechnological detergents and cleaning products both require and enable effective cleaning at low temperatures, without the need to increase the dose, time, or labor effort.
Time
A living bacterial culture actively works to break down and consume—“eat up”—dirt. The living cells continuously produce and secrete enzymes, as these are essential for degradation and metabolism. This means that the cleaning, washing, or cleaning effect can be extended over time and continue long after the procedure/work effort is completed.
Mechanics
Some physical rubbing will always be necessary, but a bacterial culture also cleans in hard-to-reach places, in cracks and crevices, deep in the material’s pores, and in the textile fibers of clothes. The microorganisms’ “passive” work cleans deeply and continues for a long time.
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