Leather Industry, Leather Chemicals and Sustainability

Leather is one of the oldest materials used by humans and is a widespread industry with a global value of billions of dollars. The high aesthetic appeal of leather, its natural character, durability, breathability which makes it superior to other textile materials, especially synthetic materials, and its suitability for diverse applications have made it a sought-after material throughout the historical process spanning from ancient times to the present day. While demand for leather products increases daily, it also carries serious environmental negative impacts that increase interest in its sustainable alternatives. Finished leather is animal skin that has had hair or wool removed through successive chemical and mechanical processes, has been treated with tanning agents of different properties to protect it from degradation, and has subsequently been given a specific color, pattern or texture according to the final product in which it will be used, thus becoming semi-finished. At this stage, leather has not yet taken its final product form. Finished leather is subsequently transformed into footwear uppers and soles, as well as clothing, fashion accessories, furniture and automobile upholstery, and even art pieces in the hands of artists. The leather processing industry is considered to have high potential in terms of environmental pollution due to its structural nature. However, looking at the essence of the matter, although leather processing has such an impact, it is waste/a byproduct resulting from the activities of the meat and meat products industry which sustains itself based on meat consumption. The failure to utilize this waste/byproduct, which is used by many sectors due to raw leather properties, could cause serious negative effects on the environment. Because animal skin is an organic material. If necessary protective measures are not taken, the leather will have the same or even greater effects as the meat we purchase gradually deteriorates, rots, becomes infested with insects and emits bad odors, and if consumed after this stage endangers human health, if the leather is not utilized and is thrown into the environment.

The leather processing industry transforms this product into finished leather, that is, a non-degradable product; it adds value; because it is a labor-intensive sector, it creates employment for qualified and unqualified workers. When viewed from another perspective, we also see that it involves a process that is as much a craft as it is artistic.

Furthermore, today there are also areas where waste and byproducts released during leather production can be reused in some way. For example, hair and wool can be used in the textile industry, fleshing waste in bio-fuel production, lime waste in the manufacture of pet toys, and chromium-containing waste in protein extraction. Sustainability, by definition, is the continuation of production and diversity while making human life permanent. In other words, sustainability is our ability to meet our own needs without compromising the needs of future generations. This concept encompasses within it the environment, natural resources, economy, social life and many other important elements. However, sustainability brings to mind first and foremost a structure that is environmentally friendly and does not consume natural resources. In historical context, before mass production, people had far fewer clothes and accessories. While everything was designed for the wealthy, lower social classes made their own clothing. Garments were repaired and altered and used for several additional years and thus preserved. These can be considered long-lasting products. The birth of ready-made fashion and the standardization of measurements led to reduced production costs and enabled consumers to purchase more clothing, even if not as perfect as those made by tailors and cobblers. This situation is one of the reasons for the emergence of a competitive environment.

With the passing century, greedy production aimed at high consumption has left many resources on the world facing depletion and, so to speak, has taken a toll on the environment.

Today, the brief halt in this production due to the Corona pandemic that the world is experiencing has caused nature to recover somewhat, the air to be cleaned in areas of heavy industry, and some animal species to return to their old habitats from which they had been driven away by pollution. In recent years, there has been increasing pressure to extend companies' (and the industry as a whole) accountability beyond economic performance for shareholders and all stakeholders to sustainability performance. For this reason, the concept of business or corporate sustainability has begun to be recognized and gain importance. The sustainability of a business can also be defined as "adopting business strategies and activities that meet the needs of the business and its stakeholders today while protecting, supporting and developing the human and natural resources the business will need in the future." However, the proposed synergy of current tools means that the most appropriate decisions to evaluate activities in terms of internal and external effects can only be made when economic, social and environmental consequences are considered.

For this reason, a comprehensive sustainability criteria framework focusing on functional applications in manufacturing sectors such as leather processing and leather products, and more specifically during project management, a clear need has been identified to evaluate technological developments in terms of their sustainability performance.

The concept of sustainability is intuitively understood, but expressing it in concrete and functional terms is currently difficult. Fundamental principles and systemic approaches consistent with sustainability requirements are recommended to assess strategic sustainable development planning at company level. The approaches address sustainability as follows: Addressing social and ecological sustainability at the level of fundamental principles, Figure 2. Core components of sustainability. Translating the sustainability definition to the corporate level,

• Managing the strategic perspective through a step-by-step approach in which economic performance is considered in terms of short-term and long-term risks,
• Advocating for the development of indicators with this perspective and placing them within a general framework with social, environmental and economic dimensions, showing how various initiatives in this arena relate to such a sustainability perspective.

The intensification of global industrialization, population explosion, the development of new products, and high production and overconsumption have contributed to economic development while causing environmental degradation of ecosystems. In this context, the development of corporate environmentalism, which is a strategic part of business, has become one of the most important changes emerging in markets at the beginning of the XXI century.

These actions in the environmental field have become proactive and have begun to be understood as innovations in the competitive strategies of organizations that require the research and development of sustainable products.

Particularly in the fields of engineering, architecture and design, various environmental practices such as product life cycle analysis and eco-design are increasingly global trends, while also providing useful guidance on developing new products, systems and services while reducing the use of non-renewable resources and minimizing their environmental impacts. Having realized in recent years that the resources that must also be used by future generations are limited, the need for sustainable use of resources has come to the fore. The development of production in a way that combines 'green' technology with environmentally friendly practices is also part of this scenario. Leather chemical companies bear considerable responsibility in limiting the use of hazardous substances. The leather industry and the leather chemicals industry today face many challenges. With increasing social and environmental awareness, the pace of change continues to accelerate and the emerging challenges require faster and smarter responses.

In this context, new leather processing technology applications referred to as environmentally friendly technology, clean technology, salt-free, water-free, chromium-free, among others, have been put forward. It must not be overlooked that the leather industry has maintained close communication with suppliers producing leather chemicals.

Technological innovations find opportunities for application thanks to forward-thinking leather manufacturers in many parts of the world. Labor is treated fairly, efforts are made to protect workers from dangers inherent in the work, and for this purpose appropriate work clothing and necessary training are provided. In a sector where chemical substances are so important, it is essential to know how to use them without harming the environment and people. The issue of sustainability has attracted great interest among leather industry customers, consumers and the general public, and the industry has focused on this issue for some time now. However, national leather industries develop their own strategies based on different targets they wish to achieve and act according to their own activities. For the leather manufacturing industry, other important matters fall under the headings of environmental sustainability, ethical and social sustainability, and economic sustainability, but primarily the sustainability of the sector is possible through sustainable livestock farming. The subject headings briefly addressed below are among the main issues that must be addressed in terms of the leather chemicals supply chain. Therefore, monitoring these is important in terms of seeing what progress has been made and how this can assist in other areas. The development of robust mechanisms for supply chain performance measurement is seen as a necessary step toward the transition to sustainable supply chain systems and a more environmentally friendly global economy.

However, measuring the environmental performance of supply chains must be acknowledged as a challenging process due to various factors, including the lack of standardized methodologies and the large number of criteria inherent in the nature of the issue.

• REACH, a European Union (EU) regulation covering the registration, evaluation and authorization of chemicals, came into force in June 2007. It covers both leather production within the EU and those imported from non-EU member countries. Although the direct impact of REACH on the leather industry may be less than initially anticipated, it has also helped create much greater awareness about the potential dangers of certain chemicals.
• In response to concerns about chemicals used for manufacturing in a number of industries, including textiles and leather, the concept of zero waste was born. It commits to setting limits for hazardous substances and eventually removing products that do not meet these limits from the production process. This means that chemicals do not exist in the first place, rather than looking at what is in the final product. As a result, in the leather industry, responsibility primarily lies with the chemical manufacturer rather than the leather manufacturer. For this reason, much clearer communication and greater understanding and cooperation between the two must be established to avoid future problems.
• Robotic technology, depending on the development level of countries, is not yet widely used in finished leather production from raw leather, but it is clearly less adopted in the production of different products using leather material compared to the raw leather processing sector. This is particularly important when fully automatic leather cutting is involved. The irregular shape of a raw hide creates some unusual problems when attempting to implement this; the question arises as to whether hides need to be cut into a standard rectangular shape before being taken into production. This can only be implemented if commercially better uses are found for the waste remaining after such an application.

This provides a good opportunity for forward-thinking leather manufacturers to work with their customers to finance innovative solutions that would allow wider use of robot technology. There is considerable scope for increased use of automation in leather processing.

Leather production tends to move to countries with lower labor costs, but higher levels of automated processing can help level the playing field and increase leather production in the developed world. • There is growing demand from brands and consumers for traceability to know the origin of leather and hides used in the leather production process, that is, where and through which stages they have passed. This is partly due to the fact that animal hides to be processed come from all parts of the world and concerns about the stages of rearing, feeding and slaughtering of the animals from which these hides are obtained. Particularly thanks to advancing technology, witnessing the cruel treatment of animals being carried out around the world has increased people's sensitivity and concerns on this issue. Enabling leather manufacturers and later those using leather to produce any leather product to trace the material back to the farm where it was born will provide them the opportunity to ease their hands with their customers.

It will be interesting to see how far this progresses in the future; tanneries must certainly be prepared to answer these questions and find ways to address these issues.

• The EU is actively working to create carbon footprints for many materials including leather. In the initial stages, it seemed that leather would bear the impact of the entire life cycle of the animal from which the leather was obtained. This meant that leather bore the entire burden for approximately 95 percent of the carbon figures referred to throughout the entire life cycle of the animal. This would have made the carbon footprint of leather much higher than other materials with which it competes. Fortunately, a rational solution was found and the animal's impact was shared among all industries utilizing anything derived from that animal. This made the share borne by leather relatively small. However, this also means that much of the leather's carbon footprint will be related to chemicals used in the production process, which also means that leather chemicals will now receive more focus. • Recycling has become increasingly important for reducing or eliminating regular landfill sites in the world. Whereas formerly, discussing cradle-to-grave, what could be done with products after their normal service life, we are now discussing the cradle-to-cradle principle, that is, how products can be reused to eliminate the need for disposal.

In the near future, increasing demand can be expected for leather manufacturers to answer the question of whether new uses will be available after the product's useful life is completed.

• The issues related to Chromium VI are already well documented. In connection with this, the leather and chemical industries have the obligation to work together, primarily to ensure that basic information on the subject reaches all relevant persons, and secondly to ensure that proper testing is carried out. • In many parts of the world, salt in wastewater is one of the most critical issues a leather manufacturer must deal with. The original source of salt is the salt used to preserve raw hides from the moment immediately after slaughter until they begin leather processing. Salt is also commonly used in the pickling stage prior to tanning as insurance for the process. As it has become more common for raw hides to be tanned as quickly as possible or for slaughterhouses to be located close to tanneries, the need for temporary preservation with salt has decreased. Additionally, the adoption of tanning methods without pickling, including chromium-free methods, will help reduce the salt problem. • In the wet processing stages of leather production, small amounts of biocides are used to provide protection against fungus formation on leather. In virtually all other stages of the production process, the leather manufacturer has the option of using safer chemicals. However, biocides play a key role in leather production. Because they have the ability to kill life forms that pose a threat to harm the leather. The industry must ensure that the use of biocides is as reliable as possible and most appropriate for the purpose of the process. • The leather industry continues to face challenges from alternative material manufacturers who present their materials in a way that will lead consumers to believe their materials are actually leather. That is, while questioning the definition of genuine leather has been debated for years, it still persists.

References

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