We are two friends living on opposite coasts (Brooklyn, New York and Santa Monica, California) that share a passion for living a minimal, zero waste lifestyle and on a mission to help others do the same.
Harper. Lives in Brooklyn with a +1. Sassy pup. Matcha. Wine. Whiskey. Cheese. Proscuitto.
Charley. Lives in Los Angeles with a +1. Doofy pup. Coffee. Wine. Whiskey. Cheese. Pasta.
All in Dish & Dishwasher
BUY. We love using Meliora’s Dish Soap Bar along with our kitchen brushes, particularly when we clean pots and pans. We love that there is an unscented (and lemon) option so that we only taste and smell our food when our dishes are clean and dry. The Meliora soap cuts through grease effortlessly, with ingredients that are non-toxic. And of course, we love how affordable the dish soap is: a little goes a long way and switching from a liquid soaps to solid soaps really is cost efficient.
Better, but not great. Given how much we liked Blueland's cleaning products, it is disappointing to report that we wish Blueland Dishwasher tablets worked better. Even though they are zero-waste dishwashing tablets with no chemicals or strong smell, they are too pricey to not work as well as other options. However, given the update regarding PVA in other brands, we believe that it might be worth revisiting Blueland dishwasher tabs. We had previously rated them a NOT buy given the product did not dissolve and was on the pricey side. Since then, other brands prices have increased faster than Blueland’s. Most importantly, Blueland is a PVA-free, convenient tablet option.
This was tough because there are so many good brands minimizing harmful ingredients, emissions, and plastic: Ecover, Dropps, and Thrive Market dishwasher powder were some of our best picks. Based on ingredients that were phosphate free, fragrance-free (optional), hypoallergenic, and chlorine-free. Dirty Labs is great runners up given their limited ingredients and super concentrated powder but it is on the pricy side.
MIXED buy from us. From the makers of Beyond Laundry Sheets, Beyond Auto Dish Tabs, if buying the 8-pack, is a reasonable option that competes with Dropps when it comes to cost. Being available on Amazon makes it easy for those that have Prime and do not necessarily want to subscribe. Ingredients on the website can sound scary, but generally are low risk. We like fragrance-free, dye-free, and chlorine-free features. One small issue we had was that we found some items that would have a white film after washing.
If you are a Dropps devotee already and ready to commit to a subscription or bulk purchase, Dropps dishwasher pods are by far and away the most cost effective option in the market — while still maintaining a strong zero-waste ethos.
MAYBE buy. Dirty Labs dishwasher detergent has all of the components we love: clean, concentrated ingredients, recyclable packaging, and fragrance free. We also like that there is no PVA since it’s a powder. The only challenge is that it’s pricier than other dishwasher powder options — and even some dishwasher pod options.
Not a buy. We found the experience of using Grab Green’s Automatic Dishwasher Pods to be pretty good (no complaints on the pods themselves). Our two biggest complaints - the plastic pouch isn’t really recyclable and the price is pretty darn high 😔
Buy. We liked using Ecover Dishwasher Soap in Tablet form. The product is made of better ingredients than traditional dishwashing liquid. The packaging uses much less plastic, despite the tablets being individually wrapped. For cost, Ecover is near the cheapest dishwashing of the options we’ve reviewed.
It’s a BUY! - we like Thrive Market and think its worth the membership. As a B-corporation, it houses organic, sustainable pantry (and frozen food!) items with some home goods like TP and laundry/dishwasher detergent powder.
We’ll hit you with the bad now: it seems pricey. Membership is $59.95/year and prices look expensive. That said, it is a delivery service that charges nothing for delivery >$49. We compare to Whole Foods in this review, and we think over the course of the year, you can get out ahead by just switching the dishwasher detergent to Thrive Market (details below!).
BUY. Thrive Dishwasher Powder has limited ingredients, the citrus scent is light, there is a fragrance free option, and our dish cleaning experience was pretty good. Each bag (con: it’s plastic, but at least it’s thin plastic compared to the big liquid jugs) contains 75 standard washer loads. The biggest pro yet is that even at the regular price of $6.99, Thrive Market has the most affordable dishwasher powder on the market. At the current sale price, it’s a total steal.
Note: We also reviewed Thrive Market’s Laundry Detergent Powder, which was also a screaming BUY.
NOT a buy. We love Seventh Generation as a company and enjoy many of their products. Unfortunately, the dishwashing detergent tablets are not one of those items. We would prefer the Seventh Generation powder given the same ingredients, cheaper cost, and still plastic-free option. For thsoe who like the convenience of pods/tablets over powder, we hope that the upcoming refills may cheapen the price in the future.
NOT a haul we recommend. The recycled loofah was a highlight, but unfortunately not enough for the whole haul. We liked using almost everything in this haul (zero waste dish soap, natural sponges, laundry sheets, laundry sheet), but we were confused at the hand soap sheets. Moreover, many items were on the pricey side - the biggest reason for our overall no recommendation
Not a buy. While we thought Grab Green’s Liquid Dish Soap worked fine, we have some pretty major complaints. We don’t love that it comes in plastic bottles, certainly not plastic free, or even an attempt to reduce plastic here. There are some pretty questionable ingredients, including sulfates and benzisothiazolinone that we really don’t want in our dish soap. The scent (we got the Tangerine with Lemongrass) was too sweet for our taste - smelled too ‘artificial-soapy’ in our book. Finally, the price is pretty darn high 😔
MAYBE a buy. We really loved the experience of using Puracy’s natural liquid dish soap. We liked that the consistency wasn’t too thick (easy to refill) and that the scent is relatively light. Most importantly, we appreciate that this is a sulfate free soap that is naturally derived and biodegradable. The packaging is also generally great — large refill bag means less shipments (less carbon footprint) and the very small spout makes refilling super simple (no mess!). Our two complaints - the plastic pouch isn’t really recyclable (more on this below) and the price is pretty darn high 😔
Maybe… if you want the cute retro looking tin. We think Nellie’s dishwasher powder works just fine as far as cleaning goes. We like that it’s Leaping Bunny Certified, phosphate free, hypoallergenic, and only uses a little bit of plastic for packaging. Unfortunately, there are 100% plastic-free options available and other dishwasher detergents at a MUCH lower cost.
It’s a mixed buy. Overall we have had a positive experience with rE: Dish Washing Soap Bar (Citrus) - but we’re not convinced that its our favorite option. Dish soap bars are generally much less expensive than liquid dish soap, and this is certainly true here, but rE: Dish Washing Soap Bar doesn’t stand out in terms of affordability, and it also didn’t deliver like we thought it would in terms of scent (we expected citrus, but it is basically unscented). However, from a pure utility standpoint, it cleaned our dishes well!
We like Truman’s humorous brand, but their dishwasher bars did not do anything more for us to warrant the price premium.
NOT a buy. The Seventh Generation Zero Complete Bundle for home cleaning includes the hand washing powder, toilet bowl cleaner powder, laundry tablets, dishwasher tablets, kitchen cleaner powder and bathroom cleaner powder. For a lower price, the whole home bundle omits the hand washing powder, which we like.
The ingredients are non-toxic and the canisters are made of steel — the world’s most recycblable material. However, as an example, with dishwasher powder, we prefer Seventh Gen’s old school powder in a cardboard box, which is already pretty zero waste.
We like Grove’s mission of being a b-corporation and its curation of eco-friendly, zero-waste and natural brands —we are going to use it like our online convenience store.
Based on the money report, the fact that Grove Collaborative is a b-corp, we feel comfortable suggesting the VIP membership if recurring items are in your basket. Otherwise, there is no necessary commitment to support your favorite green brands by purchasing through Grove Collaborative — you would just need to hit the threshold for free shipping; otherwise shipping is $4.99.
Pubic Goods has incredibly clean packaging and an admirable mission of making sustainable and earth friendly products available on one site. Unfortunately, we barely break even when considering the cost of membership against the products we tried and would actually continue to order.
