Grove Collaborative is a sustainable brand that makes a ton of different products. They have products ranging from health and beauty to cleaning and laundry. In this article, I’m reviewing Grove’s laundry powder packs.
The laundry room is one area that usually has a bunch of chemicals and plastic. In an effort to be more eco-friendly, I used to buy a “biobased” liquid detergent from Target. Looking back, I think I was being greenwashed, but eventually I switched to Dropps. I love Dropps and I actually have reviews of their products as well. So when I discovered Grove’s laundry detergent packs I was really interested in giving them a try.
I ordered 2 bags of their laundry packs in the trial size. Each bag comes with 8 packs, so I tried these for a total of 16 wash cycles over the course of 3 months. Here’s my experience with them.
(Disclaimer: the Grove laundry pods and dishwasher pods looked identical to me. But the images in this post were taken after I finished trying the product so I used their dishwasher pods as fill-ins. But, I truly do think they look identical. I was concerned about mixing them up when I first unboxed my package.)
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Ratings
Overall Score
Function
Ease of Use
Packaging
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Easy to use
- Great brand to support
- Cleans as well as other leading brands
Cons
- Plastic packaging
- More expensive than similar products
Do I recommend Grove Laundry Detergent Packs?
Yes, I do. There’s a bunch of math that usually goes into my review posts, and some of that math is the ratings. I usually want about 80% or better in the categories I review for (in this case, function, ease of use, and packaging). Grove get’s a total of 13 out of possible 15 stars in this scenario and that’s about 86% or 4.33 stars.
I was hesitant to recommend their laundry packs, mostly because of the plastic packaging. I have not recommended products before because of their packaging, so why is Grove any different?
Well, for the many reasons I give in my brand review of Grove, they’re really a great company that is working toward a more sustainable future. Their transparency is beyond what I’ve seen with any other brand so far. So I think supporting Grove as a brand is a great decision to make as a consumer, even if one product isn’t the “most” eco-friendly.
For now, I’ll recommend Grove’s laundry detergent packs with the assumption you will recycle the packaging. And hopefully one day soon we’ll have compostable or recyclable packaging that isn’t plastic.
I also understand that some of you out there might want to get as many cleaning supplies from one place as possible, rather than having 5 different companies sending you receipts and charging your card, and sending 5 different packages. It’s just easier to manage. These detergent pods could be a great choice for you if you’re already buying regularly from Grove.
If you’re not interested in plastic at all or just not interested in these after reading this review, I recommend you checkout Dropps laundry pods.
Does it get the job done? (Function)
Coming from Dropps laundry pods, I didn’t notice a huge difference. My clothes still felt the same, they smelled the same, overall the Grove packs seemed to clean the same. I also didn’t run into any stains or messes that didn’t get cleaned after one wash cycle. And I never had any issue with packs that didn’t fully dissolve.
Overall I’m very happy with how Grove’s laundry packs worked for me! They did exactly what I needed them to.
Ease of use?
These work just like any other laundry pod/pack out there. You simply put the pack in the washer barrel before you put your clothes in. Then, when you’re ready you can start the wash cycle like normal and the pack will work its magic!
Grove actually warns against putting their packs into the detergent cup or slot that some machines have. Definitely don’t do that. I’m not sure what that would do, but more than likely it just wouldn’t dissolve very much.
Packaging
Product packaging is where Grove took the biggest hit in my rating process. Their packs come in a plastic bag! Ugh, whyyyyy!
I recently did a brand review on Grove (which is like a product review but for the brand) and they are such an awesome company! They’re transparent and actively working on eliminating plastic packaging in all their products so I was so confused when I got these in the mail.
Grove has a Beyond Plastic initiative and they claim they will be completely plastic free by 2025. Since the packs I bought are made by Grove, I have to assume that within the next 3 years they will stop shipping the laundry packs in plastic. If 2025 comes and our plastic enemy is still around, I will reevaluate my recommendation.
Beyond the packaging for the pods themselves, the shipment packaging was stellar. Grove uses regular brown paper as filler rather than bubble wrap or peanuts like many other companies. I like to use that paper as filler come Christmas time, and it even makes good gift wrap. They get a gold star (metaphorically) for the cute handwritten note too. But ultimately, I’m rating on the products packaging and not the shipments packaging.
What options do I have to buy?
Grove offers two different size bags. You can order the trial size bag like I did, and that comes with 8 packs (pods). Or, you can size up and order a 45 count bag.
When it comes to fragrance, Grove offers 3 different scents. They have:
- Citrus & Woods
- Free & Clear
- Lavender & Rosemary
I ordered the Citrus & Woods and the Free & Clear bags. In my experience, the citrus and woods scent was very very light. It wasn’t really noticeable, and I didn’t notice a difference in the smell of my laundry once it was done in the dryer.
I even added Grove’s orange essential oil to my dryer balls to see if that boosted the scent and it still wasn’t noticeable. So I’d recommend just sticking with Free & Clear but it’s up to you. Maybe the Lavender & Rosemary is more pleasant?
Cost and Comparability
Sometimes eco-friendly products are more expensive than their non-eco-friendly competition. I like to make tables so you can easily see the costs of several different brands at once, and see how they compare for yourself. To get these numbers, I go to the brand’s own website (Dropps and Blueland) or I go to Walmart’s website.
On Walmart’s website I look for popular items that are available in-store that day. I do this because they generally have lower prices than other stores. If you pay more than Walmart prices, then the difference between Grove’s laundry pods and what you buy will be even less.
Table 1 has both options for Grove’s laundry packs listed right in the first two rows. Take a look and then I’ll discuss the results after the table.
Table 1
| Brand | Pods Per Container | Total Cost (USD) | Cost Per Pod (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Grove Collaborative Laundry Powder Packs - Trial Size |
8 |
$3.95 |
$0.49 |
|
Grove Collaborative Laundry Powder Packs |
45 |
$15.95 |
$0.35 |
|
Dropps Stain & Odor Detergent Laundry Detergent |
56 |
$18 |
$0.32 |
|
Dropps Stain & Odor Detergent Laundry Detergent |
210 |
$49.50 |
$0.24 |
|
Blueland Laundry Refill Packs (3 pack/40 per pack) |
120 |
$32.00 |
$0.27 |
|
Gain Flings Original Scent, Laundry Detergent Pacs |
96 |
$21.44 |
$0.22 |
|
Tide Pods Laundry Detergent Pacs, Original |
96 |
$21.44 |
$0.22 |
|
all Mighty Pacs Laundry Detergent Pacs, Free Clear for Sensitive Skin, Unscented and Dye Free |
60 |
$9.97 |
$0.17 |
Grove Collaborative is the most expensive detergent on this table. Even against other eco-friendly brands like Dropps and Blueland, they kind of fail the cost comparison. I really like that they have the trial size bag, but does make the detergent the most expensive per wash so it’s not cost effective long-term item.
I’d only recommend getting the trial size for just that, trials. It’s a good way to test it out in your machine with your clothes and see if it’s the right fit for you without committing to 50+ pods.
I usually buy the Dropps 56 count box so Grove’s detergent would really only be 3 cents more expensive per wash for me. That’s not terrible, but if you’re doing laundry all the time then it might add up. Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide which detergent fits best with your budget and home. If the price doesn’t sway you to one side or the other, then maybe the ingredients will, or the packaging. That’s why I like to include it all in these reviews!
So now, let’s talk about subscriptions, because that might be something that works well for you.
Beware of Subscriptions
Grove does offer subscriptions. One thing to keep in mind is that when you order an item through them, it automatically enrolls those items in the subscription program for you. You have to wait until the order is processed to adjust the subscription, but you can cancel it immediately after. I can usually do it within a few minutes of placing the order.
I’ve always canceled it right after because I don’t need to re-up my cleaning supplies but maybe once a year. I’m cleaning for one person and so I just don’t need that many things. If you’re someone that’s cleaning for a household of 4 or 5 then a subscription might be a blessing. I can think of a few people that would really love a subscription for household cleaning supplies.
Subscription Options
Once you process your order, you can navigate to “Product Subscriptions” under your account tab in the top right of their site. From there you can choose a shipping frequency of 1, 2, 3, or 6 months for that particular item. But here’s where it might get a little tricky.
Scheduled shipments need to reach a $29 minimum for VIP members or $49 for non-VIP members. What that means is, if only one item for $12 is set to refill for the current month, it won’t go through. It will get added to next month’s shipment, and so on until you eventually reach the minimum amount.
That could be a little annoying if you’re not buying that much from them, which is why I tend to buy a lot at once and then cancel the subscription afterwards. But Grove says this shipping method helps them stay true to their carbon neutral shipping.
If you want to see more information on how that works from the source, check out these links:
Ingredient Things
Grove’s laundry packs aren’t yet rated by the EWG and a quick look into their ingredients didn’t send any red flags. You can find the ingredient list here. It is the tab right next to “Description.” The list of ingredients is pretty small and a large proportion of their listed ingredients are biodegradable according to Grove.
What makes Grove's laundry detergent packs a sustainable choice?
Grove’s laundry packs is one of those items that some people would consider a sustainable swap and others would not. I will say, it can be. In order for Grove’s laundry pods to be a sustainable swap for you, you’d need to be switching from something that is more wasteful. That would likely be a plastic bottle.
Even though detergent companies market their plastic bottles as recyclable, the nature of detergent makes them hard to recycle. Detergents stain, discolor, leave residue, and generally make the plastic hard or impossible to process at recycling facilities.
So if you’re switching from a detergent in a plastic bottle, or something equally as wasteful, then I’d recommend this as a sustainable alternative. Especially if you’re interested in Grove’s subscription program or more of their products (because you have to hit the minimum for any 1 shipment).
You’ll also want to make sure you recycle the plastic bag in order for this product to be truly zero waste.
If you’re using a brand like Dropps or Blueland for your laundry detergent, then I think you’ll be better off sticking with them. And if you’re interested in other sustainable laundry detergent then check out my Dropps pods review. ;
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In case you didn’t catch my posts about Dropps laundry detergent pods, you can check it out here.
Sustainably is supported by readers like you. When you buy through links on this site, we may earn an affiliate commission at no additional cost to you. You can read more about affiliate links on our “Affiliate Marketing…” page.