Clear cold cups are ideal for serving smoothies, juices, iced coffees, yoghurts and fruit salads.

Different from other states, the Queensland market call for larger volumes of clear cups during the summer, and therefore larger size cups of 20oz to 24oz volumes will be more popular there. Sydney and Melbourne shops more often supply 14oz to 16oz medium size cups for serving juices and iced coffees. Both flat lids and dome lids are popular.

Material

In the market, you are able to find a few different materials for clear cups, both plastic and bio-plastic.

Plastic clear cups

Polypropylene (PP) plastic cups and Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) plastic cups are desirable due to their respective qualities and therefore appeal to a variety of establishments based on affordability, image profile and functionality.

PP plastic cups are clear with a touch of haziness, flexible, strong and an affordable option to PET. And PET plastic cups are ultra-clear, rigid, impact resistant and visually highlight the colour of its contents.

Single use plastic can cause huge problems to the environment - a very good lesson learned from the Society of Plastics Engineers Conference 2018. Rather than what we do with it, it is a bigger challenge to encourage consumers to bring plastic cups back in for recycling into food grade packaging and high value plastic products of various types.

Bio-plastic clear cups

Polylactic Acid (PLA) material is derived from renewable resources such as corn starch or sugarcane. PLA is compostable at the commercial composting facilities. Bio-plastic cups have a 6-month shelf-life and must be stored away from direct sun and below 35°C.

More material information can be found from the material database of the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE).