Attention Googlers Update 8-2-07: Check out my improved dishwasher powder recipe [1]. It's much improved from this early attempt.

I have this little roll-around dishwasher and I'm getting really tired of buying detergent for it. It's expensive! And I'm not real thrilled by what's in it, but the "eco-friendly" kind is even MORE expensive. So I did a little googling and found several "recipes"; all of them were basically one part borax to one part baking soda. Me being me, and me having a 25 lb bag of washing soda in the basement, I'm subbing washing soda for the baking soda. A cup of each, mixed together, makes a lot. You use 2 tablespoons per load. If you wanted to, you could probably put a couple of drops of sweet orange essential oil in it, and the stories said it makes a pretty good cleanser, which I completely believe and shall experiment with (for that use, I'd add the essential oil; not so sure about dishes). I'll let ya know how these experiments turns out. I hope well, because a) this is CHEAP and b) it's about as nontoxic as you can get and still get clean.