COVID-19 has caused dramatic changes in how consumers live their lives and how they clean their homes. Judging by empty store shelves, and IRI data, Americans are buying and using more disinfectants than ever before. It’s a perfect time, it would seem, to enter the home care category.
 
A company called o3Waterworks is out in the market with a product that company officials contend could very well be a game-changer for those looking for more a sustainable means to sanitize their homes—from the gunk in the bathroom sink to what’s inside the vegetable crisper.
 
The company’s sustainable spray bottle transforms tap water into what it calls “nature's most powerful sanitizer—aqueous ozone.” What’s more the bottle can be used for years, according to the Miami-based company. 
 
Ozone has a history of commercial use as a cleaner and sanitizer.
 
“Ozone works very well as a cleaner in hospitals, hotels and pools—it is just not well known by the public,” said Jonathan Nussbaum, president of o3Waterworks.
 
Ozone is also a powerful oxidizer, killing pathogens, molds, yeasts, and bacteria including e.Coli and salmonella.
 
According to the company, o3Waterworks replaces many cleaners including hard surface cleaners, glass cleaners, stainless steel cleaners and room deodorizers 
 
“People can’t get sanitizers and disinfectants in the stores…or they aren’t going to stores,” Nussbaum told Happi in a phone interview in late April. 
 
During the coronavirus pandemic, consumers seem to be taking extra precautions; they are sanitizing every hard surface in the kitchen and bathroom, wiping packages that arrive on their front porches, and washing fruit, too. 
 
And o3Waterworks can be used in all of those applications. 
 
Nussbaum said that claims made regarding salmonella, e.coli and bacteria have been tested by third party labs.
 
o3Waterworks contains no fragrances or dyes and leaves behind zero residue, which parents will like for cleaning baby strollers, toys and pacifiers. But it can be used on countertops without etching which can happen with other cleaners, and it can tackle pet accidents, too.
 
The bottle does have a high price point; the retail price is $199, but it will last the average family about five years and eliminates the need to buy hundreds of plastic, one-time use bottles of cleaner, according to Nussbaum. Built-in LED lights let users know when the bottle needs to be charged or serviced.
 
In addition, o3Waterworks also offers an aqueous ozone laundry system that cleans and destroys odors in laundry without laundry detergent. It connects to the washing machine and turnis cold water into ozone in a similar manner.
 
Nussbaum was intrigued by ozone’s potential in categories like laundry and homecare where green and natural products were gaining ground. He acquired distribution rights to the consumer market cleaning bottle in the US and Canada from Enozo Technologies, Inc in October 2019. That was well before the pandemic hit, and US consumers ramped up their home cleaning purchases.
 
“We had no idea what was coming down the road,” Nussbaum said.
 
At press time, he said he was working to expand availability with a big box retailer.