Lauren Gropper saw plastic waste on film sets and reframed it as a design problem. Fifteen years later, Repurpose has diverted 727 million pieces of plastic from oceans and landfills by selling compostable plates, cups, trash bags, and toilet paper in retailers like Target and Walmart. The brand survived six years of near-zero consumer interest in sustainability, a geographic expansion mistake that spread resources thin, and a crowded market where “compostable” is no longer a differentiator. Through all of it, Lauren has relied on a three-part product filter to decide what gets the Repurpose name and what gets cut. She shares that framework and how it drives her product strategy.
On seeing plastic waste as a design problem:
I’d gone to school for sustainable design, and I thought, This is just the wrong material. We can solve this plastic problem with better design. What if we could use good materials instead of materials that are toxic and last forever and end up in our oceans and landfills? What if we could use something better and cleaner that would actually degrade?
I was excited by thinking about how to solve this using design. But design is one thing—making a broader impact and actually making change is another. There were other companies starting to challenge the status quo, disrupting legacy brands in organic baby food or natural cleaning. It felt like there was space to have a brand that stands up against plastic disposables.
I didn’t know what I was getting into. Had I known, I honestly may not have done it. So I’m happy that I didn’t know. I was just like, Let’s go. I’m gonna do this.
On the three criteria every product has to meet:
We use what I call the Venn diagram of performance, sustainability, and affordability. Those three things have to hit in order for us to put something out into the world with the Repurpose brand on it.
Performance means it can’t melt or break in your hands. It has to work as well as a conventional product. Affordability means it can’t be some niche, crazy-expensive thing. There are products out there that are incredibly sustainable—incredible design, incredible materials—but the cost is insane. You’re never getting that into a Target or a Walmart at a price that’s way out in left field. People just aren’t going to buy it.
So what meets all three? Definitely sustainable, third-party certified, independently tested for toxins, breaks down according to certified compostability standards. Plus, it’s affordable and it performs. Bingo. That’s what we put out into the world. If it doesn’t meet those three, it doesn’t go.
On the sandwich bag she hasn’t made:
We get asked all the time, “Can you guys make an alternative to plastic sandwich bags? My kids use these every day in their lunches.” I would love to do this. But so far, the plant-based versions we’ve tested don’t hold up to our performance standards. There are companies out there doing great work trying to get these products out there, and I applaud them. But we’ll wait until we find something I’d want to use at home and can stand behind.
On the packaging that tore open and the shiny object trap:
I have the founder version of shiny object syndrome. I get really bedazzled by a new material or a new resin. And then you go down the path and it’s just way too expensive, or at the end of the day, it doesn’t perform.
We had this amazing compostable bag to seal our products instead of plastic packaging. Super compostable. We thought the performance was great. And then, lo and behold, on shelf, the bag was just tearing open. Product falling out—horrible. We thought we were doing something great, but we just didn’t do enough testing. We rushed it. I really wanted to do it, and we didn’t have the right product.
There’s also so much right now that I would love to commercialize and bring to market that is just so unique. But either the price is too high or the performance isn’t quite there. The sustainability factor is so high and so amazing—that’s what gets me really jazzed. But then the practical measures aren’t there.
On going all in on your core market:
We tried to penetrate too much of the market early on. We probably only had consumer buy-in on the West Coast, maybe some of the Northeast—really, it was a coastal thing, and maybe some pockets of metropolitan areas. But it was not widespread across the country in terms of awareness or desire for these products.
I would have focused more heavily on those markets and gone very deep there, versus trying to spread across the country. The landscape has changed so much with ecommerce now—you can be available for everyone everywhere—but I would still focus my marketing budget on the areas that have the strongest consumer market for my product. Absolutely.
On why she’d never launch with just one product again:
Note to entrepreneurs out there: Never launch with just one product. Or if you have one product, maybe have multiple versions of it. We launched with the coffee cup because it was the one that people wanted—consumers and retailers. It had amazing performance; it was super sustainable, affordable, and had this incredible feel, kind of like velvet. The lid was also compostable. People loved it.
But I would never launch with one again. It’s very hard to stand out. Think of walking down the grocery aisle and looking at the shelves: one little item is very hard to notice as a brand. You always want to have more items so the person walking down the aisle can see you and maybe spend three seconds being like, “Yeah, I’ll take that.” Lessons learned.
On shifting the message from sustainability to health:
Today’s consumer, the younger generation, just expects sustainability. It’s not a feature—it’s table stakes. So then what?
Sustainability is always going to be part of our DNA, but it’s not necessarily what we’re leading with now. We want people to know how it impacts them, their health, and the health of their family. All of our products are nontoxic. We offer a safe alternative to conventional products that may have microplastics or PFAS. And people care, sadly, a little more about that than they do about the environment at large.
It was really about how messages were being perceived. We’d test different messages and ad formats, and what people were really responding to most was messages around microplastics and PFAS—issues that impacted their own health and the health of their family—versus messages of sustainability. Kind of a sad reality, but you’ve got to meet people where they are.
I think the reason we’ve been around for 15 years is that we are so focused on product, so focused on affordability and sustainability, all at the same time, and we do not sacrifice. I’m a mom with two kids. Life is messy, life is fast. I just want convenience, but I don’t want to feel guilty about cutting corners. Couldn’t we just give a mom an easy out with a product that works, no negative consequences, and it’s good for the planet? That’s a win for me.
Be sure to check out Lauren’s full conversation on Shopify Masters for more on the compostable wine glass that people mistook for plastic, how she convinced retailers to shelve Repurpose next to legacy brands instead of in the green aisle, and training her entire team on AI while weighing its environmental cost.
