✨ Nellie’s: Concentrated dishwasher powder. Phosphate-free and septic-safe.

🍃 Ingredients (as listed by Nellie’s): sodium chloride (salt), sodium carbonate (washing soda), citric acid, sodium sulfate, sodium percarbonate (oxygen bleach), sodium metasilicate, cocamidopropyl betaine, sodium silicate, protease (an enzyme).

✅ The Good: Mostly minerals and citric acid, plus an enzyme that breaks down food.

💚 Progress Over Perfection: Cocamidopropyl betaine is a lab-made cleanser from coconut oil. Sodium metasilicate is a strong alkaline mineral that can irritate skin and eyes, so keep it away from kids and pets. Nellie’s calls this a plant-based formula, but most of the list is minerals.

📦 Packaging: Tin, also sold in pouches and buckets.

🛒 Browse more: Dishwasher Detergents

✨ Branch Basics: Fragrance-free dishwasher tablets with no plastic film wrapper.

⭐ Branch Basics – Fragrance-free dishwasher tablets with no plastic film. The brand says a plant-based binder holds them together, but does not say which ingredient that is.
🍃 Clean (as listed by Branch Basics, 11 ingredients): washing soda, sodium percarbonate, citric acid, sodium citrate, poly(itaconic acid-co-AMPS) sodium salt, sodium gluconate, protease and amylase enzymes, sodium metasilicate, sodium lauryl sulfoacetate, and potassium caprylate.
💚 Progress Over Perfection: Branch Basics files poly(itaconic acid-co-AMPS) under “Mineral Based Ingredients,” but it is not a mineral. The AMPS half is made in a lab. The brand also does not publish where most of these ingredients come from.
💧 Low-Impact: EWG Verified, checked on EWG’s website. Branch Basics has not said what the pouch is made of, so we cannot confirm the tablets never sit in plastic.

🛒 Browse more: Dishwasher Detergents