In the UK, IAG has invested in Wastefront who plan to turn used tires into Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). The SAF will be made by converting waste tires into tire derived oil, which is then refined into road fuels and SAF. The SAF produced is expected to give life cycle carbon emission savings of over 80% versus fossil fuels.
This deal is another step forward for IAG in its commitment to SAF and enables Wastefront to begin construction on its fully circular tire-to-fuel facility in the Port of Sunderland.
The plant will begin operations in 2026 and once fully operational the following year, will process up to 10 million waste tires annually. The UK currently generates around 50 million end-of-life tires each year, with most of them currently exported to countries such as India where they are incinerated in cement plants or disposed of in landfills.
Facilities like Wastefront’s planned Sunderland plant are critical to meeting the UK’s SAF mandate, which came into effect on 1 January 2025, requiring at least 10% of all jet fuel used in flights departing the UK to come from sustainable feedstocks by 2030, rising to 22% by 2040.
