Biokleen Automatic Dish Powder By Nani-Ka on Sep 01, 2008 - Updated Oct 15, 2011

I've been trying to substitute ecologically responsible versions of everything I use since last year. One of the hardest things to find was a reasonably-priced powder dishwasher soap That Worked. It took trying a few different products, but i'm glad to say that I finally found something that actually does the job.

Biokleen's Automatic Dish Powder is Phosphate & Chlorine Free, and uses Oxygen Bleach instead. They do no animal testing, and it contains no animal ingredients; it contains nothing the EPA or ACGIH consider hazardous or pollutants. Its concentrated, which means you only have to use a 1/2 tsp of the soap in each cup. This means that your 2 pound container lasts practically forever. I opened it at the beginning of June; I do a full load every 2-3 days, and I still have about half the container left and its 3 months later.

It has a Grapefruit Seed & Orange Peel scent - and it actually includes extracts from those fruits to do the work of cleaning and scenting it. I like the smell of it as I put it in the soap cups - very grapefruity, which isn't a bad smell. The other thing I really like is that my kitchen doesn't fill up with a cloud of cholorine bleach vapor when my dishwasher hits the "dry" cycle.

I also really appreciate the packaging. Because its so concentrated, the container is this teeny little thing, that hardly takes up any space under the sink at all. Its also made from recylable #2 plastic; which means if I don't have something I want to re-use it for once its empty, I can toss it into the recycle bin for a second life.