Pharmaceutical Tray Recovery: Our Turnkey Recycling Solution

Written by Top Clean Packaging - Published on 10 September 2025

In the pharmaceutical industry, the use of single-use plastics represents a significant volume each year. Bioprocesses, packaging, conditioning trays… these elements play a key role in the safety and quality of medical devices, but their recycling is still underdeveloped today. To address this challenge, Top Clean Packaging Group has committed to a sustainable approach supporting the circular economy by creating a dedicated pharmaceutical tray recovery offer.

A Concrete Solution: Tray Recovery

Each year, several tons of used trays are collected, recycled, and transformed into new raw material reintroduced into our production chain. Through our subsidiary Top Recycling, we ensure the collection of trays from our customers, their shredding, and the reuse of the recovered material, either to produce new trays or to resell to partner extruders.

We offer an on-site tray recovery service across Europe. In addition, we can provide collection bins at customer facilities to make storage and collection easier.

Thanks to our technical capabilities, we recycle a wide range of plastics, including PS, APET, PETG, and PP.

This solution brings many benefits to our customers:
• Economic: lower waste treatment costs
• Logistical: a turnkey solution with no logistical burden
• Environmental: integration into a circular reuse loop
• Brand image: enhanced CSR commitments and sustainable positioning

The Key Role of Our Subsidiary, Top Recycling

For over 20 years, Top Clean Packaging Group has placed sustainability at the core of its priorities. Through our subsidiary, Top Recycling, we recycle not only all of our own industrial waste but also that of other partner companies.
At a dedicated 1,200 m² site, equipped with shredders and grinders, plastic waste is collected, sorted, and transformed into secondary raw material. Packaged in big bags, this material can then be reintroduced into production processes or resold to converters.

Each year, more than 1,000 tons of plastic of all types are revalorized, actively helping to limit the environmental impact of our activity and giving materials a second life.

In the healthcare sector, where requirements are particularly strict, we ensure full traceability of recycled material, from collection to reuse. All our processes comply with current hygiene, safety, and regulatory standards, providing our customers with complete control over the life cycle of their plastic waste.

Concrete Partnerships with Pharma Leaders

Among the tons of plastic waste we recycle each year, a part comes from used trays collected through recovery programs implemented with our pharmaceutical industry clients.

Through these partnerships, we recycle injected or thermoformed trays originally manufactured within our group companies. Since the launch, hundreds of thousands of trays have been recovered and revalorized, representing several hundred tons of plastic.

Conclusion: taking concrete action for a sustainable future

The pharmaceutical industry remains one of the sectors most affected by plastic waste, largely due to the single-use nature of many components. Despite ongoing sustainability efforts, these volumes highlight the importance of concrete initiatives such as tray recovery.

This approach is fully aligned with the group’s broader commitments to the circular economy and more responsible production.

Ready to Take Action? Get in touch with our teams to join our tray recovery program and contribute to building a more sustainable pharmaceutical industry.