Positive News: Engineering Student Turns Red Solo Cups Into Stylish Sweaters That Don’t Shed Microplastics

Engineering Student Turns Red Solo Cups Into Stylish Sweaters That Don’t Shed Microplastics

A college engineering student is making headlines for her clothing line that spins red solo cups thrown away after fraternity parties into soft sweaters and beanie caps.

The process addresses every concern or question one might have, and is finding a second life for these hard-to-recycle cups.

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Made by companies like Solo and Hefty, solo cups are a staple at American parties across the nation. God only knows how many are used and tossed every year, but many recycling facilities won’t have the equipment needed to process their plastic blend.

Enter Lauren Choi, an engineering student formerly at Johns Hopkins University, who founded the New Normal Collective after discovering a way that these cups could be turned into textiles.

She had long had an interest in sustainable fashion, but it was after she graduated in 2020 that she was able to secure grant funding to buy an extruder machine which can turn shredded plastic cups into thread. She had tried to build one of these machines herself in her parent’s garage during school years, and knew that they were the key to turning her vision into a reality.

Choi relied on two other engineering colleges to provide a non-toxic, natural material that would turn the icky, plasticy feeling thread into a soft and comfortable, knitwear-ready yarn.

Final solution ready, and missing only the machinery, Choi received further grant funding from none other than Reynold’s Consumer Products, the parent company of Hefty—one of the largest producers of plastic solo cups in America.

Her supply chain now is anchored in North Carolina and Virginia where the yarn is made from the shredded cups. It’s then shipped to a facility in Brooklyn where a 3D knitter creates the sweaters and beanies available on the New Norm’s collection in a single knit using filament yarn rather than spun yarn.

Spun yarn—typical of wool products, is made from many small threads spun together, while filament yarn is a continuous, unbroken thread. The advantage of the latter is that it prevents a major source of pollution from artificial textiles: microplastic shedding.

Every time spun-yarn made from polyester or other artificial textiles is washed, it sheds some of its threads. These in turn enter the environment as air and water pollution and represent a major contributor to the overall burden of microplastics.

Another advantage of 3D knitting is that it produces a whole garment without any fabric scraps.

“3D knitting has a lot less waste compared to traditional cut-and-sew, where many fabric scraps are wasted,” Choi told the Guardian. “Instead, our pieces are knit straight out of the machine without any seams – it’s just one full garment that doesn’t need additional sewing.”

No artificial dyes are used in the production process, as the pastel shades of yellow, green, blue, and pink, come from the cups themselves.

The Guardian reports that The New Norm product drops will occasionally sell out within hours, generating thousands in revenue. It’s encouraged Choi to seek future opportunities in the business-to-business side, and she’s now undergoing trials with several large firms who are testing the thread for strength and durability.

The sweaters retail for between $45 and $85.

WATCH how they’re made below…