Vegware Cups & Accessories

Vegware cups are the brand's plant-based, compostable range covering hot drinks, cold drinks, and smoothies. The line includes single-wall and double-wall hot cups, PLA clear cold cups, and paper cold cups, all certified to EN 13432 for industrial composting. For cafes, takeaways, and event caterers committed to compostable service, Vegware cups give you a single brand that handles every drink format on the menu without mixing certifications. This guide covers what's in the range, how to match cups to your drinks, and what to weigh before placing a bulk order.

Key Factors to Consider

Material

Vegware cups use three different base materials depending on the drink format. Hot cups are made from sustainably sourced kraft paperboard with a PLA bioplastic lining replacing the conventional PE coating, so the whole cup is industrially compostable. PLA clear cold cups are moulded from corn-derived bioplastic and offer the visual clarity of conventional PET, suiting smoothies, iced coffee, and juices where customers expect to see the drink. Paper cold cups use PLA-lined paperboard for cold drinks where opacity is fine and price matters more than presentation. The three materials behave differently in use: kraft hot cups handle boiling liquids without softening, PLA clear cups warp above about 40°C and must never be used for hot drinks, and paper cold cups sit between the two on cost and feel.

Sizes

Vegware structures its cups around two series. The 89-Series covers hot cups (10oz, 12oz, 16oz, 20oz) and paper cold cups (10oz, 12oz, 16oz). The 96-Series covers PLA clear cold cups (12oz, 16oz, 20oz). Within each series, the rim diameter is consistent, which is the basis for lid compatibility. For most cafes, 8oz and 12oz hot cups account for the bulk of orders, so weight your ordering in those sizes. If you sell smoothies or iced drinks, 16oz tends to outsell 12oz on cold cups. The smaller 4oz espresso cup sits outside both series and uses its own dedicated lid.

Lids

Lid choice is where Vegware cups quietly save you SKUs. The white fibre hot cup lid (90mm, sip-through) fits the 12oz, 16oz, and 20oz hot cups in the 89-Series, so one lid covers three cup sizes. The 4oz hot cup uses a smaller dedicated lid. PLA dome lids and flat lids for cold cups follow the same series-based fit: a 96-Series flat or dome lid fits 12oz, 16oz, and 20oz PLA clear cups. Dome lids with a straw slot suit smoothies; flat lids without a slot suit takeaway iced drinks. Never mix series. An 89-Series lid will not seat properly on a 96-Series cup even though the diameters look close, and a poorly seated lid is a spilled drink waiting to happen.

Sustainability

Every Vegware cup carries EN 13432 certification, which is a genuine, audited industrial composting standard. The certification matters most in operations that actually feed cups into a commercial composter or a council food-waste stream that accepts compostable packaging. Where that infrastructure exists, the sustainability claim is real and verifiable. Where it doesn't, a Vegware cup goes to landfill the same as a conventional PE-lined cup, and the environmental benefit is largely lost. Before you market your cups as compostable to customers, check what your local council and waste contractor actually accept. Being precise about that builds more trust than overpromising. The back-of-house side of this story is the compostable bin liner, which is what actually carries the post-service load to its disposal route.

Cost

Vegware hot cups typically run between 7p and 14p per cup depending on size and wall type, with double-wall and ripple-wall variants at the higher end. PLA clear cold cups run 8p to 16p per cup. These prices sit clearly above non-branded compostable competitors and well above conventional PE-lined paper cups. The premium buys you a single audited certification across your whole drinks range, a brand that customers and councils recognise, and lid compatibility that reduces SKU count behind the counter. Buying in cases of 1,000 typically drops the per-cup cost by 10% to 20% compared to smaller pack sizes; balance that against the storage space and shelf life. Vegware cups have a long enough shelf life that bulk buying rarely creates waste for an established business.

Branding

Vegware cups carry the brand's printed designs by default: Green Tree, Feel Good, Gallery, and Green Britain prints on the kraft hot cups, plus plain kraft and plain white options. For independent cafes, those prints align well with a sustainability-led identity and signal compostability to customers. For chains and operators who want their own logo on the cup, custom-printed Vegware cups are available with minimum order quantities typically starting at 5,000 units. Below that volume, the practical alternatives are using plain kraft or plain white Vegware cups with a branded sleeve over the top, or applying a branded sticker to the cup. Both keep the certified-compostable story intact while giving you visible ownership of the cup.

Pro Tips

• Order a sample of every cup size you plan to stock and run boiling water through the hot cups for ten minutes. Wall thickness, seam quality, and lid fit vary enough between batches that a sample test before a bulk commitment is worth the small overhead.
• Standardise on the 89-Series for hot drinks if you're starting from scratch. One lid SKU covering 12oz, 16oz, and 20oz removes a category of ordering mistakes and speeds up service during the morning rush.
• Don't use PLA clear cold cups for any drink that's been left in a warm car or sat under a heat lamp. They warp at temperatures most cold drinks never reach in service but easily reach during transport or storage.
• If you serve both hot and cold, stock paper cold cups in the 89-Series rather than PLA clear cups in the 96-Series. The shared lid pool with your hot cups simplifies stock management, and paper cold cups are typically cheaper per unit. Use PLA clear only when visibility into the drink genuinely sells it, like smoothies or layered iced coffee.
• Confirm your local waste collection or commercial composter accepts compostable cups before printing "100% compostable" on menus or signage. The technical claim holds; the practical outcome depends entirely on the disposal route.

Summary

Vegware cups give you a complete compostable drinks range under one brand: kraft-and-PLA hot cups, PLA clear cold cups, and PLA-lined paper cold cups, with a lid system structured around the 89-Series and 96-Series rim diameters. The strengths are consistent EN 13432 certification across every product, lid compatibility that reduces stock complexity, and a recognisable brand that supports a credible sustainability story. The trade-offs are a per-cup premium over generic alternatives and limited custom branding without committing to 5,000-unit minimums. For operators who already serve compostable, Vegware cups are the path of least resistance to a single-supplier, single-certification drinks line. The drinks range sits alongside hot food, cold food, tableware, bags, and back-of-house supplies in the wider Vegware compostable packaging range.