Question from charlene Gormley
Has anyone been able to find out any information about WOW Green cleaning products. Their website does not list any ingredients and they say their products are safe and natural because they use enzymes.
I’m just wondering if they are another company pretending to be green, but aren’t?
Also WOW stands for World of Wealth – not exactly a green living way of life, unless you are talking about the other kind of green: cash!
Debra’s Answer
The label says “proprietary enzyme formula, surfactants, natural scent.” I think that’s about all they are going to reveal. But that’s enough.
They do seem to be very interested in promoting their business opportunity and I am being bombarded by independent reps wanting me to list them on Debra’s List.
An enzyme is “an organic molecule, produced by a living organism, that increases the rate of a chemical reaction.” Enzymes are present throughout nature–almost all life processes, such as the digestion of food, need enzymes to occur at significant rates.
So when a product says that it contains enzymes, it contains a substance produced by a living organism that speeds up a natural process of the breakdown of dirt and stains.
Here’s an important thing to know about enzymes. Enzymes are extremely selective, and speed up only a few reactions from among many possibilities. In fact, the specific enzymes made in a cell determine the function of that cell. A “proprietary enzyme formula” would be a set of enzymes chosen to perform a specific set of cleaning functions.
And that’s the rub about enzymes. In Nature, cells perform very specific functions as a result of their enzymes. If you then introduce different enzymes, what happens? We don’t know.
Thank you for this analysis, Debra!
I was considering buying some trash bags that are reportedly made biodegradable via use of an impregnated enzyme. But you made some excellent points that no longer makes that sound like such a great idea. I’m grateful for the reality check!
k2
In 2009 I convinced a WOWGreen rep to get me an MSDS sheet. The one she got was for floor cleaner. As Debra says, it contains NO information about the contents. Other than water, it just says the enzymes (protease, lipase, amylase) and fragrance are proprietary. If I want amylase, I can spit on something–that’s an enzyme in our saliva that starts the digestion of starches. Proteases break down proteins and lipases break down fats, but there are many kinds. I, too, have been bombarded by their reps wanting to set up tables at our annual environmental fair. I don’t trust products where the reps can’t tell me anything about them–they really don’t know! They just keep saying it’s environmentally friendly, but they don’t know why.