From Socks to Suds: How EcoGeek’s New Dishwasher Powder Was Born

By LJ, Good Store CEO

It’s May 2023, and I’m touring the DFTBA warehouse for the first time. John Green is in Missoula, and as we talk about the weird and wonderful directions Good Store might take, he mentions a YouTuber who’s deeply passionate about the virtues of powdered dish soap.

“Maybe one day,” he says, “we could start a cleaning products subscription.”

Fast-forward two years, and that offhand idea has come to life.

How EcoGeek's Dishwasher Powder Was Created

We launched EcoGeek — a Good Store venture that curates the best of the internet’s innovative cleaning products and adds our special twist: 100% of profits to charity, this time supporting Coral Reef Alliance.

When we launched, we didn’t have a dishwasher powder, but our friends at Green Llama had detergent tabs that quickly became a best-seller. At that time, I hadn’t yet met Alec Watson, the delightfully earnest creator behind the YouTube channel Technology Connections.

If you know Alec, you know: he goes deep and minds the details.

Good Store teamed up with him on a limited-edition sock collection — wearable art full of inside jokes for his fans. (If you missed it, sorry! It was available only for a blink.)

While we were getting that sock party started, I brought up dishwashers and floated the idea of creating the world’s best dishwasher powder. Alec didn’t hesitate:

“I am so down.”

So I called Matt and Kay at Green Llama — the art-and-science duo behind those beloved dishwasher tabs — and asked if they’d help us make a powder. Matt, as it turns out, shares Alec’s knack for going deep on the details. My inbox soon filled with their correspondence about surfactants, citric acid, and sodium carbonate, and I learned more about the chemistry of clean dishes than I ever expected to.

Matt from Green Llama

Now, after months of testing, EcoGeek has launched its newest product: Dishwasher Powder. It’s third-party tested to meet or beat the cleaning power of leading brands — but without microplastics, and with the flexibility only a loose powder can offer.

It’s a weird and wonderful collaboration between some very cool people, solving one of life’s most universal problems: dirty dishes.

If you love the convenience of a pre-measured tab, keep on with the tabs. But if you’re ready to go a bit deeper, Alec has some content for you.