The Expert Edit features interviews with specialists about the products they swear by in their chosen field. For the latest installment, we spoke with Sarah Paiji Yoo, CEO and co-founder of
Sarah Paiji Yoo founded Blueland after learning how many household items have single-use plastic in their packaging. The discovery came as a result of attempting to reduce her own personal consumption, which proved to be quite challenging. Her goal was to come up with a solution for everyone. The company was built on the notion that you don’t have to sacrifice a clean home and clean clothes for a clean planet. Its eco-friendly products include hand soap, dish and laundry detergent, spray cleaners, skin cleansers, and more, with a current focus on expanding into retail locations across the US and introducing new scented products in the next couple of years.
“We often talk about how we’re not a sustainable company, but rather a responsible one,” Paiji Yoo says of her work. “We are very clear-eyed that we are a consumer products company that produces and distributes new products, and our operations inevitably have a footprint. We are constantly measuring and pushing to be better across not just eliminating plastic, but also other areas like our carbon footprint (we are carbon neutral), energy and water usage, waste sent to landfills, social fairness, and working conditions across our supply chain.”
Through the years, Paiji Yoo has realized her goals by focusing on opportunities, not problems, because striving toward an eco-friendly household can be challenging and comes with lots of learning. Her biggest tips for someone who wants to host more sustainably this season include using reusable dishes or compostable alternatives like paper and bamboo; nixing single-use decor like streamers and balloons for plants and florals that can be repurposed as party favors; and switching to glass instead of plastic for meal prep and storage, in an effort to avoid ingesting microplastics.
Ahead, Paiji Yoo has shared 10 products she depends on most often for hosting sustainably and managing an eco-friendly home, along with details about how she uses each one.
