Drug recycle process was devised to prevent active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) from polluting the environment. By treating waste tablets/capsules by solid-liquid extraction and recrystallization, API can be recovered with a high yield and purity. This concept has been successfully tested for recovering ibuprofen, acetaminophen, and tetracycline HCl from tablets and capsules.The drug recycle technique based on solid-liquid extraction and crystallization has been successfully implemented to recover an API from many different brands all at once, using ibuprofen, acetaminophen, and tetracycline HCl as case examples. The amount of API that could be recovered was about 60-80% from the original amount written in the label. The quality of the recovered APIs was measured by HPLC assay, in which 99.7%, 99.1%, and 99.2% assay was successfully reached for ibuprofen, acetaminophen, and tetracycline HCl, respectively.The recycle process consists of solid-liquid extraction and crystallization, which are common industrial unit operations. Only stirred-tank vessel, filtration, and drying equipment are required. The recycling process can even be performed for drug products from different manufacturers, as long as the API is the same. Because of its simplicity and robustness, scale-up should be straightforward.