Conclusion

  1. Market for Eco-Leather Products
  2. Production Practice
  3. Modification of the Manufacturing Process for Eco-Leather

Originally, leather production is an environmentally friendly industry because the hide discarded as waste before is being processed into useful materials. This complies with the principle of effective use of resources. Apart from minimising waste creation, leather production helps in saving resources in a broad sense because less synthetic materials need to be produced for application to replace leather.

However, contemporary leather processing applies production technology and chemicals that causes environmental pollution. Furthermore, some manufacturers only look for profits and efficiency but ignore environmental protection. Due to this reason, leather industry is being classified as "Polluted Industry".

As people’s living standards are improving gradual there is a higher demand for environmental protection New standards promulgated every year for "Clean" products and control of the discharge of the discharge of solid waste and waste water. The purpose of studying in eco-technology in leather production is not just to fulfill the requirements of the environment protection department, but also to maintain the image of the company and undertake social responsibility to the community



Market for Eco-Leather Products

Requirements of Current Market
The requirements of current market for eco-leather products are based on the following aspects:
  • As product knowledge increase, consumers demand for higher quality leather products increases.
  • More chemicals are found to be hazardous to health and the environment.
  • To maintain the product image and responsibility of environmental protection……

Future Needs
At present, the following products are being involved in eco-leather production, for example, car seats, glove leather, infant shoes and other product such as fashion trend of some apparel and bag leathers, are in favour of using the natural materials.

 



Production Practice

The product can achieve the pre-requisite specifications through careful planning; effective use of raw materials; careful material selection and preservation; careful process and chemical control; and product grading. Examples of planning and control during processing including use less salts and application of low temperature to preserve the hides so as to reduce the salt pollution in water and increase the freshness of raw hides.

Selection of Chemical Materials
The chemical auxiliaries and raw materials will be selected according to the following guidelines:
  • To abandon usage of noxious and banned materials, that adversely affect the ecology, these include azo dyes derived from prohibited amines, chrome VI, anti-fungus and anti-mildew agents, etc.
  • To reduce usage of pollutants as much as possible or completely replace them with materials containing low sulphur, low salt, low aldehyde……
  • To replace most of the materials containing metal or synthetic materials by natural materials.
 



Modification of the Manufacturing Process
for Eco-leater

Certain machinery and equipment in a factory should be modified for optimising the operation in order to meet the requirements of environmental protection. Better co-ordination among production, machine speed, machine output and operators can lead to high efficiency.

Production of eco-leather will involve all aspects of a tannery including management, materials, operating procedures and company culture. The key to success is promotion of the company culture of which is an continuous improvement process.

All through the entire manufacturing process, we shall make an overall scheme for the filtration, recycling and reuse of wastes. Supported by appropriate equipment, materials and working procedures, the workload of the end-of-pipe waste treatment will be released and leads to further enhancement of savings in handling large volume of waste in a rapid and economical way.