Partners deliver circular PET food trays

Sulayr Recycling has strengthened its transparent-to-transparent, tray-to-tray PET recycling operations in Granada, Spain in partnership with Tomra Recycling.

Sulayr specialises in processing complex and multilayer thermoformed PET trays into new food-grade trays with full traceability. By integrating advanced sorting solutions from Tomra, the recycler is establishing a stable and scalable model for circular PET packaging in Europe. 

Sorting precision

Serving more than 100 customers across Europe, Sulayr produced more than 50 000 tonnes of recycled PET in 2025, equivalent to a production capacity of over four million trays per day. To maintain this momentum on an industrial scale while meeting increasingly strict market and regulatory demands, Sulayr sought to enhance process stability and sorting precision.

‘As quality requirements evolved, stability became just as critical as purity,’ explains Sergio Collado, chief technology officer at Sulayr. ‘For tray-to-tray applications, you need a process that delivers consistent results every single day, not just under ideal conditions.’

Flexibility

To achieve this level of consistency, Sulayr engaged Tomra Recycling as a strategic partner to co-design and optimise the sorting process. It advised on optimal machine positioning and the pre-treatment steps required to ensure material reaches the sorting units in peak condition. The objective was to engineer a stable, scalable process rather than simply installing standalone machines. 

‘We collaborated closely with Sulayr to align with their targets, material characteristics and operational constraints,’ says Jesús Espinar, Tomra Recycling’s area sales manager. ‘Our shared responsibility was to design a process that performs reliably and consistently delivers the high quality required by current European regulatory standards, while providing the flexibility to adapt as those requirements become even more stringent in the future.’