There are many reasons to shop for products that are made in the USA, including:
- Local sourcing cuts down on transportation for raw materials and products, reducing emissions and energy consumption.
- Domestic manufacturing can provide jobs with fair pay and safe working conditions while supporting local economies.
- Products made in the USA are more resilient to tariffs and global volatility, especially if their raw materials are sourced primarily from the United States.
All Meliora Cleaning Products are manufactured in the USA at our factory in Chicago, IL. Ownership of our manufacturing process is an integral part of living our values. Making everything ourselves means that:
- We control the process, ingredients, and packaging, so you can be sure everything is up to our standards.
- If something doesn't work, we change it. If something can be improved, we make it better.
- Our workers are paid living wages and are integral to continually improving our products and processes.
Does that mean that Meliora Cleaning Products are made in the USA? Let’s explore that subject in more detail!
What does ‘made in the USA’ mean?
According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), a product is made in the USA if “all or virtually all” of the sourcing and manufacturing occurs within the United States. This standard has two major components:
- All significant processing of the product must occur in the United States, including the final step in the manufacturing or assembly process.
- Virtually all of the ingredients or components must be made and sourced within the United States, meaning that the product contains negligible foreign content.
Do Meliora Cleaning Products fit those criteria?
The answer to the first criterion is a resounding yes. All raw ingredients—organic coconut and sunflower oils, organic essential oils, baking soda, washing soda, sodium percarbonate, and lye—are shipped to our factory in Chicago. Our team processes these ingredients into soaps and powders, packages and labels the finished product, and ships it out to customers directly from the factory.
Simply put, raw materials come in and finished products go out—all of the “significant processing” happens right here in our building.
As for the second criterion, the answer is mostly yes. Our raw materials include both ingredients and packaging. We source most of our raw materials (about 70% by cost in 2024) from within the United States.
Bottom line: Our products are made in the USA from both domestic and imported materials. They’re processed entirely in the United States by workers who earn living wages and benefits in safe working conditions.
For most people, we believe our products meet the criteria for American-made products. They are assembled in the USA and support an American company and American workers. Ultimately, our stance is to provide you with as much information as we can so you can make an informed decision.
Where we source our raw materials
We source what we can domestically based on availability. For instance, some ingredients are sourced from plants that are grown primarily in other parts of the world.
Sometimes we’re able to source a suitable alternative from the United States. For example, we use sunflower oil made from Midwest-grown seeds as a local alternative to foreign-grown sunflower and olive oil in some of our soap formulations.
Below, we’ll break down our sourcing for each of our raw materials.
Ingredients
Baking soda and washing soda
Baking soda is derived from naturally occurring trona ore and nahcolite. Trona is converted to washing soda, or sodium carbonate, and then treated with carbon dioxide to make baking soda. Nahcolite is a mineral form of baking soda. We source washing soda from Wyoming and baking soda from both Wyoming and Colorado, depending on availability.
Sodium percarbonate
Sodium percarbonate is a white, crystalline, water-soluble solid commonly used in laundry and cleaning products as a bleach alternative. It’s made from a combination of washing soda and hydrogen peroxide. We source sodium percarbonate from Alabama or Turkey, depending on availability.
Organic coconut oil
Organic coconut oil comes from the fruit of the coconut tree. We source organic coconut oil from the Philippines and Sri Lanka.
Sodium cocoate and potassium cocoate are the chemical names of coconut oil that is saponified, or ‘made into soap’. We manufacture these soaps in our Chicago, IL factory using organic coconut oil and lye.
Organic sunflower oil
Organic sunflower oil comes from the seeds of the sunflower plant. We source organic sunflower oil from Wisconsin. Even better, we return the empty barrels to the vendor to reuse, making this a zero-waste ingredient.
We manufacture sodium sunflowerate and potassium sunflowerate soaps in our factory using organic sunflower oil and lye.
Organic essential oils
Organic essential oils are concentrated extracts derived from organically grown plants. We use lavender, lemon, clove, peppermint, lemongrass, and tea tree essential oils to make the scented versions of our products. We source these oils from various countries depending on availability, including Spain, Italy, India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, and Australia.
We also offer unscented versions of every product to provide the lowest-impact options that reduce the raw materials needed and help mitigate potential fragrance sensitivities.
Packaging
Paperboard boxes and canisters
Most of our products are packaged in paperboard boxes or paper-and-steel canisters that are reusable or recyclable. We source our boxes and canisters from suppliers in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Our team packages the finished product at our Chicago factory and ships it from there to customers, wholesalers, and distributors.
Bottles and sprayers
Our reusable glass bottles and plastic sprayers are imported from China by local distributors. They’re designed to be purchased once and then refilled with tablets that come packaged in US-made paper boxes.
Bulk buckets
Our bulk buckets come with pre-paid return labels so that you can send them back to us to be reused once they’re empty. This closed-loop program is especially popular with refill stores that offer our powders by weight.
We source buckets made in the USA from distributors in the Midwest.
Support cleaning products made in the USA
Meliora Cleaning Products are made in the USA from 70% domestically-sourced materials. We design and manufacture our laundry and home cleaning products in our Chicago factory and ship them directly to you and our retail partners. Our team members earn living wages and benefits, have safe working conditions, and are integral to continually improving our products and processes.
