On a college campus, amid parties and littered cups, one student saw possibility instead of trash. Lauren Choi, an engineering undergrad, looked at the heaps of red and white Solo cups strewn about and asked: “Why can’t we spin this into something new?”
Most plastic waste, especially party cups, are nearly impossible to recycle.
But instead of giving up, Choi devised a way to extrude plastic waste into textile filament, creating yarn that can be knitted directly into clothing. That idea became her company, The New Norm.
From Parties to Pullover
Choi started small: organizing campus collection drives, enlisting fraternities to gather thousands of cups, and refining her extrusion process. Her first product drop, sweaters and beanies made from those very cups, sold out within two months.
Today, The New Norm uses a “plug-and-play” process. Plastic filament is extruded in facilities across the U.S., shipped to Brooklyn, and then 3D knitted into garments, no cutting, no sewing, and virtually zero fabric waste.
The Beauty in the Bits
Because many party cups are already dyed in pastel tones: pink, green, blue, the yarn often requires no further dyeing. That means less chemical use, and a more direct path from waste to wardrobe.
Even better: by using continuous filament yarns instead of spun fibers, The New Norm’s garments shed far fewer microplastics in the wash.
A Humble Start, an Ambitious Future
Choi is now in Boston, pursuing an MBA, but The New Norm continues to scale. What began as a creative experiment has grown into a mission: to weave new life into waste, to reimagine fashion systems, and to turn discarded plastic into something wearable, meaningful, and beautiful.
In a world overflowing with “fast fashion” and fast waste, Choi’s work feels like a pause, a chance to see the elegance hidden in scraps, and a reminder that sometimes the best solutions are born from what others discard.
The post From Party to Pullover: Sweaters Made from Solo Cups appeared first on Moss and Fog.