Replacing PE-Lined Cups and Sleeves with PFAS-Free Double Wall
Case Details
At a glance
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Market |
United States — Midwest |
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Client type |
Regional coffee chain, 40 stores, own roastery |
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Products |
12 oz and 16 oz double wall cups, 90 mm lids |
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Lining |
Aqueous, PFAS-free |
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6-colour flexo, two Pantone matches |
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Volume |
[2.4] million cups a year, released in [two] shipments |
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Production lead time |
30 days |
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Documents supplied |
Declaration of compliance, migration test report, total organic fluorine test |
The problem
The chain was running single wall cups with a PE lining, plus a separate sleeve. Three things went wrong at once.
First, their previous supplier could not produce a total organic fluorine (TOF) test report. With state-level PFAS restrictions moving through the Midwest in 2025 and 2026, the buyer's own legal team started asking questions the supplier could not answer.
Second, the sleeve was a hidden cost. It was a second SKU to stock, a second thing to run out of, and one more motion for every barista on every drink.
Third, single wall cups with a sleeve still drew complaints about heat on 16 oz black coffee.
What we specified
We moved them to a double wall cup with an aqueous PFAS-free lining — the same construction, one material family, no sleeve.
- Wall: double wall, 12 oz and 16 oz, air gap [1.0–1.4] mm, bonded at rim and base
- Lining: aqueous dispersion, PFAS-free, applied at the converting stage rather than added later
- Lid: 90 mm, matched to the cup rim so the lid seats without rocking
- Print: 6-colour flexo, two Pantone matches, registration held to ±[0.3] mm
The lining choice was the part that needed testing, not the cup. Aqueous coatings vary widely — the same generic name covers products with very different water resistance. We ran a soak test at 95 °C for 30 minutes on the actual cup before committing to the run.
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Item |
Specification |
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Cup sizes |
12 oz / 16 oz |
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Rim diameter |
90 mm |
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Wall |
Double wall, air gap [1.0–1.4] mm, bonded rim and base |
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Board |
[280–320] gsm cup stock |
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Lining |
Aqueous dispersion, PFAS-free |
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6-colour flexo, two Pantone matches |
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Lid |
90 mm, matched to rim |
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Case pack |
[1,000] pcs per carton |
How it was produced and checked
- Pre-production sample. Three cup bodies with the final lining and print, sent for the buyer's own barista trial.
- Lining verification. Soak-through test at 95 °C, 30 minutes; visual check on the seam.
- In-line checks. Leak test on every batch, print registration checked at start and mid-run, cup height and rim diameter gauged.
- Pre-shipment. AQL [2.5] sampling on cartons, plus a retained sample per lot.
What changed for the buyer
- One SKU instead of two. The sleeve came off the menu, the shelf and the reorder list.
- A compliance answer that holds. Every lot ships with the TOF report and a declaration of compliance covering the cup, the lid and the ink — not just the board.
- Fewer heat complaints. The air gap does work the sleeve was doing.
The trade-off they accepted: double wall cups take more carton space than single wall, so the per-container cup count dropped. Landed cost per cup went up slightly; landed cost per served drink went down once the sleeve was removed.
Documents supplied with each order
- Declaration of compliance (EU 1935/2004 and FDA 21 CFR format)
- Migration test report for the finished article
- Total organic fluorine test report for the lining
- BRC A-grade certificate of the producing plant
