Sapphire Energy Recovery was formed in 2001 as a joint venture between the Lafarge Group – the world’s largest cement maker – and Michelin Tyre PLC – the world’s largest tyre manufacturer.

The joint venture met the needs of both businesses – for Lafarge Cement a need to achieve security of tyre supply, for Michelin, a need to proactively meet its producer responsibility obligations.

We offer a sustainable solution to the processing of used or end-of-life tyres in the UK by providing them for use as an alternative fuel for the cement industry.

Sapphire manages the used tyre supply chain to:

• Facilitate collection of end of life tyres from all sources including wholesalers, vehicle dismantlers and local authority schemes.
• Collection of tyres to a Sapphire processing centre via a regional collector network.
• Sapphire produces a specific grade of chipped tyre proven to be the best size for combustion in the cement industry.

All our processing centres in the UK are certified to ISO 14001 and registered to the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) and regularly monitored by the Environment Agency.