APPROACHES TO SUSTAINABLE LEATHER PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGIES

Rawhide is a by-product of the meat industry and it is an organic and natural material. Leather production processes are highly complex and difficult processes where rawhide is turned into processed leather by using lots of water and chemicals. If mass balance and efficiency are calculated comprehensively in a classical leather production process, approximately 50% of the chemicals used in wet processes are held by collagen, approximately 20% of the chemicals used in finishing process are held on the leather. While, 65% of the chromium used in leather tanning by chromium, as the most extensive leather tanning technology of the world, is recovered by the leather, the remaining chromium is discharged into the refining system through waste water. Furthermore, due to oxidization of chromium from +3 atomicity to +6 atomicity, negative impacts arise on human health. In the leather industry, where water use is high, approximately 45-50 m3 water is used for producing of 1 ton cattle hide. Due to the factors as the rawhide is not a standard raw material in leather production process, use of extensive amounts of water and chemicals, using very different leather tanning processes in consequence of continuously changing fashion and customer demands, leather production processes with lesser environmental impact have recently been adopted in the leather sector. Traditional leather producers approach the issue tentatively as they do not want to take any risk with respect to their production models and the chemicals they use in leather production, increasing demand of customers for the leather with environmental friendly/sustainable (eco-label) and improving environmental-consciousness, approaches towards sustainable and clean technologies for leather production that have been gaining importance. In this study, new approaches in leather industry are summarized by examining innovative sustainable production processes with low energy and power consumption for leather industry which has a difficult production process. Within this context, innovative and environmentfriendly chemicals and sustainable leather production models will be presented