rPET

Recycled PET plastic, used for clear cold cups and containers. It reuses existing plastic and is widely recyclable, though it isn't compostable.

rPET is PET plastic made wholly or partly from recycled material rather than virgin resin. It keeps the qualities that make PET popular for cold food service — crystal clarity, rigidity and strength — which is why it's common for clear cold cups, deli containers and salad boxes.

Its environmental angle is circularity, not compostability: rPET reuses plastic already in the system and is itself widely recyclable through standard PET streams, but it will not break down in compost. So the right disposal path is the recycling bin, clean and empty, not an organics collection.

For buyers weighing clear cold-cup options, rPET and PLA look similar on the shelf but diverge on disposal: rPET recycles, PLA composts industrially. Choose based on which waste stream your venue and council actually support, and keep the two apart so neither contaminates the other.