BioKleen Laundry Powder has been discontinued. The Citrus Essence version no longer appears on the BioKleen website and the Free & Clear Laundry Powder is listed as out of stock. Prices have skyrocketed on remaining stock in stores. I confirmed by a telephone call to BioKleen on 4/29/24 that indeed this is true. They discontinued all powders. BioKleen powders have been a top recommendation for cotton cloth diapers for many years. 

Big corporate strikes again!  BioKleen was a small family owned business from 1989 to 2019.  In 2019, it was bought out by Weiman Products , a subsidiary of The Carlyle Group, an equity firm with $426 Billion in assets. That's billion with a B.

This is another example of why it is so important to shop small whenever you can. Big corporate owning everything reduces consumer choice.

It is so hard to find powder laundry products at all now! I prefer powders. I don't need more plastic packaging in my life. I prefer powder because it is so much easier to accurately measure. It is also less likely to cause oversudding and doesn't need biocides to preserve it which most liquids have (MIT and other isothiazolinones). Powder is less likely to coat fabrics and less likely to contain questionable or hidden ingredients, especially preservatives that are biocides. There are tradeoffs of course. Powder doesn't dissolve in well cold water and doesn't rise as well in cold rinse water, but still, I prefer it. 

Clean has no smell. Fragrances, both natural and synthetic do not clean anything. They aren't needed and are best avoided. Fragrances cover up uncleanness, cross-contaminate onto other surfaces in public spaces and stink up the air in the neighborhood (some people have allergies to it so that's not nice thing do to strangers or your neighbors). It probably interferes with baby's ability to detect mom's natural scent. For these and many reasons beyond these, we strongly recommend using fragrance-free laundry products without synthetic encapsulated "trade secret" ingredients. Microemulsified fragrances that last a year are not helpful and yes, they are real. They are nearly impossible to remove when you purchase second hand items washed in them. Fragrance doesn't clean anyhow. Losing BioKleen means that there are now even fewer fragrance-free choices. This is is a big loss, indeed.

So now what do we do? There are still a few options for fragrance-free powders. Azure Washing Time Washing Powder and Esembly Washing Powder come to mind. I know Esembly Baby is direct competitor to Green Mountain Diapers so I'm probably nuts to recommend it from a business perspective, but their laundry powder is really good, checks all the boxes for a good powder detergent for cloth diapers and it is fragrance free. 

We are resilient. We will overcome this loss and find a way. Post your suggestions, thoughts and experiences with FRAGRANCE-FREE laundry products. Let's learn together.

Bye Bye BioKleen. You will be missed.