The Top Line:

Public Goods offers eco-friendly dishwasher pods in a recyclable, thin plastic pouch. Because it’s greywater friendly, and we like other Public Goods Products, like its floss and deodorant, we wanted to like the dishwasher pods. Unfortunately, no great savings over other pods and the scent really threw us off: we are NOT recommending the Public Goods dishwasher pods.

Check out our Big Zero Waste Dishwasher Roundup on the Reduce Report.

Note: we did a Public Goods Roundup Review here!

The Breakdown:

• Cost & Products: $6.95 for a 24 pods

• How ‘Clean’ Is This? Greywater friendly … but comes in a plastic bag.

• Packaging: Because the pods needs to be kept away from moisture, the product comes in a plastic pouch :(

• Purchasing & Shipping: The website is cleanly designed and ordering is a straightforward. The free shipping threshold seems a little on the high side at a minimum of $45.

  We wish the minimum was around $25 or the membership fee was waived in lieu of higher individual prices for products.

• Good to Know: The Public Goods blog goes out of its way a bit to compare products and reveal ingredients in its content.

• Coupons: Two-week free membership with first-time orders. $10 off first time orders if you subscribe to their newsletter.

• What’s Your Impact? From a packaging standpoint, kind of limited. Ingredient-wise, there is a lot less crap (theoretically) in there.

The Efficacy

For context, we mostly use Seventh Generation dishwasher detergent, but we have been known to use Cascade in the past.

• Even though it says fragrance-free, the smell was so strong!!

• It worked fine, no better or worse than any other detergent we’ve used

• The casing did not always dissolve in out dishwasher, so a pile of it would be stuck in the soap compartment

• And the scent!

The Cost

So, we have a little beef with pods to begin with: it’s not possible to control the amount of product that is going into the dishwasher. But, we’ll compare the price to other pods here if you run your dishwasher 215 times per year:

• Public Goods Dishwasher Pods $6.95 | Yearly cost: $62

• Whole Foods 365 Pods* $4.99 | Yearly cost: $54

• Grove Collaborative $5.95 | Yearly cost: $64

• Dropps (64pack) $25 | Yearly cost: $84

• Dropps (180pack) $25 | Yearly cost: $60

• Cascade Complete* $17.30 | Yearly cost: $48

• Cascade Pure* $17.80 | Yearly cost: $66

Money Thoughts: No sugarcoating, it’s definitely on the more expensive end on an annual cost basis, before you consider the membership fee. (Can we also highlight the fact that Cascade’s “green option” is so expensive?)

*These come in a plastic tub versus a thin plastic pouch

The Good:

✔ Comes in a thin plastic package as opposed to the big plastic bins that many other dishwasher pods come in

✔ Plastic pouch is super thin and recyclable

✔ Ingredients are greywater friendly

The Bad:

✗ The smell is so strong! (It’s a clean smell, but it’s supposed to be unscented)

✗ Still comes in plastic packaging, but it’s a lot lighter than the tubs

✗ No significant savings over other options

Our Recommendation:
We know that because the pods are water soluble, the options are limited for packaging. We were willing to let that go because (1) the packaging is super light and recyclable and (2) the ingredients are greywater friendly. But the scent was just way too strong for us. Plus, there are no great savings with Public Goods on this buy. We think there are better options out there.

We're on a mission to reduce our personal carbon footprint with small, hopefully easy, changes in our home to fight against climate change. This means we're looking for products that may be all natural, ideally zero waste, reusable or compostable -- while still being affordable!