I’ve tried every brand of dishwasher detergent; it’s an expensive way to find out just how poorly it cleans your dishes. Many traditional powder detergents tend to leave a weird film on my drinking glasses and can’t seem to banish dried on food that are stuck on plates. Liquid dishwasher detergents don’t seem to do the job either. As I’m phasing out toxic cleaners in our home, I’ve struggled to find the dishwasher detergent that is eco-friendly and can clean our dishes without having to rinse and scrub them before going into the washer. Am I asking too much for our dishes to come out sparkling clean from the dishwasher?

I am happy to say that I’ve discovered my new favorite cleaning product this week. method’s Smarty Dish dishwasher detergent is, hands down the best dishwasher detergent to date. I barely and rarely have to scrub the plates and waste water before putting dishes into the dishwasher. I’ve tried both the pink grapefruit – gives off a subtle hint of grapefruit – and the Go Naked zero dyes and perfumes versions – both clean equally well.

Product ingredients include: mineral cleaning salts, naturally derived and non-toxic anti-spotting agents, surfactant starch, protein cleaning enzymes, cellulose-derived coating and binder, algae-derived dispersing agent. Okay, I’ll admit these ingredients sound vague. What exactly are these naturally derived, non-toxic anti-spotting agents? Are they derived from plants? I need to know! I looked on the website and still did not find a clear answer. The website boasts of using fruit, plants, flowers and herbs and other ingredients “derived natural materials like soy, coconut and palm oils.” I just want them to be more specific. I’m going to contact the company and find out more about these ambiguous ingredients.

The brainchild of Adam Lowry and Eric Ryan, method products are “made by and for people against dirty” with the simple notion of providing safe, eco-, human- and pet-friendly products. Packaging is made primarily of recycled materials. Lowry and Ryan hired designer Joshua Handy to create recylable plasitc forms that look like functional art. method products definitely stand out on store shelves. Their marketing is fun, up-beat and always humorous – you can always depend on smiling when picking up any product from method.

Smarty Dish certainly fights dirt with a vengeance and it’s exciting to know that method is on its way to becoming a household name. Spread the word.

Available at method, $ . Also available at Target, less than $5.