Lauren Choi's The New Norm Upcycles Plastic Cups into Sustainable Apparel Textile
Lauren Choi, a Johns Hopkins engineering graduate, founded The New Norm with the mission to convert post-consumer plastics, starting with red Solo cups, into textile filaments for apparel.
In 2019, during her senior year, Choi led a team that built an extruder and collected thousands of cups from campus fraternities to support the project.
The New Norm launched its first direct-to-consumer collection in late 2023, using approximately 5,000 upcycled cups. This initial drop sold out within two months.
Development of wearables-grade filament was aided by Gaston College’s Textile Technology Center and the Polymers Center NC, with financial support from grants by Johns Hopkins, Garnier, and Reynolds Consumer Products, which owns the Hefty brand.
Yarn production takes place in North Carolina and Virginia before being shipped to Brooklyn for 3D knitting of sweatshirts and beanies priced between $45 and $85. The 3D knitting process minimizes textile waste by eliminating seams.
The company remains lean, with a workforce ranging between 3 and 25 employees. Choi relocated to Boston to pursue an MBA at MIT and plans to scale operations through business-to-business partnerships with large brands. Pilot tests are underway to evaluate yarn strength and laundering durability.
The yarn features continuous filaments derived directly from post-consumer cups, with colors naturally arising from the cups themselves, such as pink, blue, and green. It is designed to reduce microplastic shedding compared to traditional spun fibers.
This innovation addresses a major environmental concern, as the global sustainable textiles market was valued at $29.5 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $71 billion by 2031. The plastics crisis involves about 8 billion tons of plastic pollution worldwide, with less than 10% currently recycled. Upcycling plastics into textiles like The New Norm’s is viewed as an early, viable solution within this context.
