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My husband staged a bit of a revolt recently because the eco-friendly laundry detergent I bought left our clothes smelly. The laundry strips I had purchased didn't seem to actually clean anything. So, I've been looking for an environmentally friendly detergent that works. 

Procter & Gamble's EC30 waterless products line are meant to reduce carbon emissions by dramatically reducing the amount of space they take up when shipping. 

The laundry detergent looks like small fabric swatches that start to dissolve the second they touch water. I used the detergent on a couple of loads of laundry to see how it works. 

Having reviewed laundry machines for years, I know that too much soap is bad for your clothes and machine. My hesitation with laundry pods is the inability to adjust the amount of detergent depending on the load size. 

One load I did was pretty small, but there were no detergent bubbles left on the door after the wash (a telltale sign you've used too much soap). 

I had to crumple the EC30 swatch to fit it in the detergent dispenser. After the wash, there was no residue left in the compartment. Later I learned I was supposed to use the powder setting on my washer, so I was impressed it still worked. 

If you don't have a dispenser or the tab won't fit, you can put it in the drum.

I used my normal cold-water settings and was pleased with the results. I'd had a shirt sitting out that had a mysterious stain and smelled because of my usual laundry detergent's ineptness. It's now clean and lightly scented.

The EC30 laundry detergent is a great, though pricey, choice if you don't have much room to stock big bottles. At about $1 a load, they're quite a bit more than the $0.25 per load you can expect to pay for Tide Pods.

However, at under an ounce each, they could be very appealing to people who have trouble lifting heavy containers or who have to lug laundry to machines located outside their homes. Plus, neither the product nor the packaging contains plastic, which is a big boon if you're trying to reduce plastic use in your home.

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