Glossary of Terms
Bespoke printing
Bespoke printing is when your cups are designed to your own specification. This could include your company,logo, colours and images.
Compostable
Biodegradable into organic matter, normally products carry EU Certificate EN13432, this defines the product as meeting stringent guidlines to being compostable.
Double wall paper cups
Double walled paper cups provide an extra layer of insulation keeping the drink warmer for longer, it prevents the cup from being too hot to hold and it gives it that up market, quality finish. Visit
The Printed Cup Company to view further information on double walled paper cups.
Single wall paper cups
Quality paper cup. Can be used with a cup sleeve. Visit
The Printed Cup Company for more information on cup sleeves.
Disposables market
The disposables market in this case are products which can be thrown away after use. This includes paper cups and accessories such as lids, stirrers and straws.
Some times referred to as single service products
Double Poly Coated Board
sometimes called PE coated board
The PE stand s for polyethylene, a oil based plastic, that is applied to the paper board at the paper mill.
PE board is used extensively for juice, milk cartons, yoghurt pots, cream pots and ice cream containers, as well as hot and cold cups.
The PE coating is essential part of a paper cup, as at the seams, heat and pressure is applied, that causes the PE coating to melt, and then weld the cup together, giving a waterproof joint.
The pe coating is only a few microns think, so represents a very small proportion of the total weight of the cup.
PE coated board replaced wax coatings
Single PE Coated Cups
Hot cups are normally only single PE coated i.e. only on the inside, but cold cups would be double poly coated, i.e. coated on the inside and the outside, this is to prevent condensation soaking into the board, and making the cup soggy and losing its rigidity.
Single PE coated cups replaced clay coated boards
Wax coated cups
The paper cup was glued together, and then was sprayed with wax to waterproof cups, the colder the cup was in use, the more rigid it became.
This process was not ideal, as wax detracted from design on cup, people could scrape wax off with their finger nail, factory waste from this process had to go to land fill, it was also very dangerous in production, as workers were dealing with molten wax, that could be a fire risk.
Clay Coated cups
These were for hot drinks, were wax coated boards would have been no good as they would have melted, the cup was glued together, a small amount of clay would be put in the cup, and spun at high speed so that it covered the inside wall of the cup, waterproofing the service, this was not ideal, as when serving hot drinks, customers would say tea tasted of cardboard, also cups would become soggy quite quickly.
The Waste Heirachy Refers to the three R's. reduce, reuse and recycle in order of importance. The aim of the waste hierarchy is to extract the maximum practical benefits from products and to generate the minimum amount of waste.
PLA lined
Standard paper cups use poly ethylene (PE) coated board, PE is derived from oil a more
environmentally friendly cup is where the inner lining of a cup is made from Polylactic Acid (PLA) a plastic derived from corn, water and paper. PLA is manufactured under a brand called
NatureWorks PLA Coated board is compostable and recyclable.
Vending cups
Designed to dispence through automatic vending machines.
For more details on paper vending cups, please visit
The Paper Vending cup.