The New Norm: Transforming Post-Consumer Plastics Into Sustainable Textiles
Lauren Choi, an engineering student at Johns Hopkins University, founded The New Norm to convert post-consumer red Solo cups into textile fibers. In 2019, she led a team to build an extruder and collected thousands of cups from fraternities to begin development. After graduating in 2020, Choi secured grant funding from Johns Hopkins, Garnier, Reynolds Consumer Products, and Hefty’s parent company to advance the product development.
The New Norm collaborated with Gaston College's Textile Technology Center and the Polymers Center in North Carolina to develop a soft, wearable textile from extruded plastics. Their first direct-to-consumer collection, released in late 2023, used 5,000 upcycled party cups and sold out within two months.
Production involves facilities in North Carolina and Virginia that produce yarn, while garments are knit in Brooklyn using 3D knitting technology. The apparel, priced between $45 and $85, features pastel hues derived from the cups themselves, and the continuous filaments used reduce microplastic shedding compared with traditional spun fibers.
The company maintains a lean team ranging from three to 25 employees. Choi has since moved to Boston to pursue an MBA at MIT and plans to expand the brand through business-to-business pilots with large companies.
The New Norm operates within a sustainable textiles market valued at $29.5 billion in 2024 and projected to reach $71 billion by 2031. This initiative addresses the global plastics crisis, highlighting that plastic production has increased 200-fold since 1950, with under 10% recycled and roughly 8 billion tons contributing to pollution.
