Presentation on

Submitted by
Jitu Raj
Jatin Saini
Saloni Raj
Samadrita Barua
Srijon Mallik
Sustainability in Leather
Industry
Sustainability is the ability to meet the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet
their own needs.

The circular economy (CE) or the concept of sustainable

development involves a cyclical flow of materials and energy in
that it focuses on remanufacturing, repairing, and upgrading
components, or the use of renewable resources and waste as
secondary raw materials.

The leather industry is one of the most polluting and highly

resource consuming sectors. Thus, its a responsible duty to the
society to develop sustainable circular economy.
 Contents
05/
Conclusion
03/
Solutions
01/
Problems
04/
02/ Future
Environment Trends
al Impact
 Problems Causing
1. Suffering occurs in 2. Creates
humans for the water 3. Huge amount of
exposure of toxic pollution and fossils fuel are
chemicals that are water consumed in
used in dyeing the leather production.
shortage
leathers.

4.Cutting of Tress
which caused mass
deforestation that
lead to death of
millions of species.
02/
Environmental impact
In the tannery industry, hide/skin processing to
produce leather emits solid, liquid, and
gaseous wastes generating the highest amount
of waste from the discharged solid and liquid
wastes.

During leather manufacturing, one metric ton

of raw hide processing produces tanned
leather, tanned waste leather, non-tanned
waste, and wastewater by 200, 200, 250, and
50,000 kg respectively.

An important part of CO2 emisions emanates

from livestock (cattle) population.
02/
Environmental Impact

The Fig. above gives the volume of waste generated from the leather Industry. The largest amount of waste comes from the
Asian Continent. The waste generated from the leather Industry from China alone contributes to 13% while, one fourth of the
global waste comes from the other Asian countries together.
02/
Environmental impact
The toxic cost of Kanpur's leather industry:
Nauseating black smoke, an overpowering pungent stench in the air, and
the sight of snow-like white foam drifting across fields and water canals;
this is how one describes Jajmau, Kanpur's industrial suburb that is home
to nearly 400 leather tanneries.
The Leather industry releases large amounts toxic chemicals and acidic
effluents concentrated with heavy metal Chromium, Cadmium,
Lead,Arsenic, Cobalt, Copper, Iron, Lead, Zinc, Manganese. All of these
highly potent chemicals make their way into the Ganges.
The Tannery owners agree that the ecological crisis has to be worked on
immediately, but that cannot come at the cost of the Leather Industry
that boasts of an annual turnover of 12$ billion
The manual labourers (including more 1 lakh migrant labourers from Bihar)
say that despite the stink and the health hazards, they can't afford to lose
their livelihood.
Carbon footprint of leather industry

624kg of CO2 is emitted per tonne

1000 kg of putrefied hides
(Source: Leather Panel).
An average cow hide weighs 6.1kg
(Source: UNESCO). 1000 / 6.1 =
163.93 hides per tonne.
 02/
Solution #1
Areas of possible improvement
Raw material
Leather – wet
processing
Leather - finishing
Cutting and sewing
Shoe / seat / bag
construction
  Life cycle
Disposal or Recycle
 02/
Solution #1

Motifs and Designs:

The designs developed are floral, geometric patterns and abstract designs.

Material used for preparing the jewellery:

Left over leather and torn fabrics, old and torn paper, bottle caps, pen caps, cold
drink tin caps, screw, wire, polythene bags, cardboard, pista shells, straw from ear
buds and sippers.

Method of preparing the jewellery:

The jewellery was created from the designed patterns using the waste material. The
assembling part of the jewellery was done using beads, nylon threads, cardboard
base, fevicol glue, fabric glue, old brocade fabrics, fabric paints.

Metal hooks and studs frames were used for pendants, necklace and earrings were
used for openings or joining the jewellery structure.
 02/
Solution #2

These are some designs made by us to show

how we are implementing these methods to

build leather waste jewellery.

 02/ Solution #2

The study conducted on "Designing jewellery from

waste" was a creative enough to recycle solid
waste. They preferred jewellery made of solid waste
such as waste paper, plastic, fabric, pencil scraps
and metal pieces in the form of cold drink caps.
They were tuch frames were used for pendants,
necklace identified as the best raw material for
reproducing in to light used for openings or
joining the jewellery weight jewellery 68% people
would prefer wearing recycled jewellery from solid
waste. The designs provided the scope for good
marketability. The study served the purpose of
recycling the waste in to feasible and wearable
jewellery
02/ Solution #3

What is lab-grown leather?

Lab-grown leather is an emerging sector in
biofabrication. In other words, it’s a process of
producing leather products without the
animals.
Materials company Bolt Threads also created a
form of lab-grown leather called Mylo, in which
mycelium — a network of fungal threads — is
the key ingredient.
Mycelium then grows into a foamy layer in
fewer than two weeks which is a big difference
from the three-plus years and lots of resources
that it takes to raise livestock, whose hides are
used in animal leather.

 Expected future trends

WHAT OF THE FUTURE?

Influence of population growth and government policies

Economic, political and technological developments in several
industries impinge upon the future characteristics of the leather
industry, covering all contingent industries from livestock
agriculture to finished goods industries and the markets that they
serve. Population growth is another important factor. For
example in China and India, where per capita incomes are rising
faster than the world average, growth in the purchasing power of
these rapidly increasing populations will be the dominant factor in
the expansion of world demand for meat and for inexpensive
leather goods. The fast growing, middle income populations of
Asia will also constitute increasingly significant markets for higher
quality leather and leather products. The demand for various
luxury leather products, on the other hand, such as leather
upholstered cars and high fashion garments,
will depend on the growth and distribution of wealth in high
income countries.
Expected future trends
Future hide and skin production Landell Mills
Commodities Studies in their report 'The Leather Industry
to the Year 2000' have reached the conclusion that for the
world as a whole, hide production will increase by a total
of 23 per cent (in weight), and skin production by 21 per
cent, over the period from 1980 to 2000. most of this
growth will occur in Asia and Latin America.

Future demand for finished goods manufactured in

leather. The buoyancy of demand relative to supply is
expected to maintain the long term, upwards pressure in
prices of hides, skins and leather, especially in the quality
sector. Growth in the demand of leather footwear will be
concentrated in lower income regions of the world:
growth in China's demand for leather shoes is projected
to more than double between 1990 and 2000.

Expected future trends

While in waste quantification, the amount of waste generated
in various industries like food processing, leather sectors, e-
waste, medical waste and construction industries are
calculated and in waste management practice, from recycling,
reusing and redesigning practice the suitable practice is
selected. To overcome the gap in waste management practice,
Internet of Thing (IoT) assisted waste management practices
are adopted in developed countries. The IoT assisted waste
management is a combination of Geographical Information
System (GIS) sensor and Global System for Mobile (GSM)
communication. With the aid of IoT assisted waste
management technology, it is possible to identify the location,
quantity and the type of wastes dumped in the garbage bins
Global footwear market in 2007
05/
Conclusion
The waste generated by leather is unavoidable as the amount of
use increases. For both economic and environmental reasons,
research institutes and industries are eager to investigate various
textile waste recycling opportunities at the industrial level. The
waste produced during the tanning process of leather
manufacturing contains hazardous chemicals that pollute ground
water and endanger living organisms. To address this issue,
alternative chemicals can be used in the tanning process. These
alternatives produce better results, are safer for living things, and
are more sustainable.

Some research institutes have developed new technologies for

generating heat and energy from toxic solid and liquid waste
generated in the leather industry. With the help modern
technology, leather goods can be recycled more efficiently
with minimum waste products.
 Reference
In Pictures: The toxic cost of Kanpur’s leather industry. (2016, July 19). India Today.
https://www.indiatoday.in/fyi/story/the-toxic-cost-of-kanpurs-leather-industry-329990-2016-07-19
Karuppiah, Koppiahraj & Sankaranarayanan, Bathrinath & Saravanasankar, Subramaniam. (2020). Leather Waste
Management Scenario in Developed and Developing Nations. 10.35940/ijeat.A1056.1291S419.
Y. Tang, J. Zhao, Y. Zhang, J. Zhou, B. Shi, Conversion of tannery solid waste to an adsorbent for high-efficiency
dye removal from tannery wastewater: A road to circular utilization, Chemosphere 263 (2021), 127987,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.127987.
https://www.timesofindia.com/city/agra/Convict-finds-solace-in-making 2. kaur, G. kaur, D.(2015) Development
of jewellery from solid waste. Asian J. Home sci., 10 (1): 190-195. 3.
http://greenwithenvyideas.blogspot.in/2015/06/jewellery-from-waste.html 4.
http://www.timesofindia.com/city/Agra/Convict-finds-solace-in-making 5. Brijbhushan Jamila, Masterpieces of
Indian jewellery (1979) D.B. Taraporevala sons & co.bombay
Thank You
Everyone