Leather Industry and Environmental Sustainability

Leather Processing Leather processing can be defined as a process aimed at transforming raw hides obtained from animals into a bio-material with added value by subjecting them to various successive chemical and mechanical operations, thereby modifying, reorganizing and developing their natural properties to acquire an appearance and structural qualities suitable for their intended use. Before we knew the glass, paper, rubber, plastics and many modern textile materials we use today, leather was the most essential material for many aspects of industry, war and daily life, and tanning has constituted one of the greatest industries throughout human history on earth. Tanning is a craft and also an art that emerged when societies transitioned to hunting, as people began using the hides of animals they killed for food to cover themselves and decorate the caves where they lived. Today's use of leather far exceeds the purposes that early humans attributed to it. When compared with other fiber-based materials used for similar purposes, the superiority of the unique properties of natural leather obtained from more than 99% of animals raised to meet many physiological needs of people—such as durability, flexibility and breathability—cannot be denied. For this reason, leather processing has become one of the oldest and most widespread occupational pursuits on earth, and we Turks are among the oldest civilizations that have known how to benefit from the blessings of this profession as we progressed from the steppes of Central Asia through the rich lands of Anatolia and from there to the center of Europe throughout history. Wherever you go in Anatolia today, you will surely encounter traces of tanning in the past.

The leather and leather products industry is an important manufacturing sector for developing countries like ours in terms of providing significant export revenues, creating employment opportunities and being able to create conditions suitable for sustainable development.

Until the 1980s, developed countries were the leaders of the leather industry. After the conquest of Istanbul, the discovery of new trade routes, increasing interaction, despite ongoing wars between equally powerful European forces where none could gain superiority over the others, the fact that country leaders directed funds to science and engineering to develop weapons, Newton's "mechanical thinking," Gutenberg's printing press, Dalton's chemistry, universities transforming from religious interpretations to institutions focused on science and technology... Eventually led Europe to understanding gravity, electromagnetism and weak and strong atomic forces and to master these forces. This led to the use of steam power and thus the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and ultimately the birth and development of today's technology. The leather industry naturally was affected by these developments, and Europe and its new version, the United States, became pioneers in this sector through the methods and products they created. However, in the labor-intensive leather and leather products sector, due to increasing production and labor costs, the increased import of low-cost finished leather by developed countries, and the high costs arising from increasingly stringent environmental protection measures alongside allocating their resources to higher-income technology and knowledge-intensive sectors, developed countries, which led this sector, began to gradually abandon it during these years. In other words, they reduced their share in the raw leather processing sector in particular, which they did not find sustainable for themselves. Raw leather processing, due to both its experience and geopolitical position, shifted toward less developed and developing countries, including Turkey among them.

Similarly, the dissolution of the former Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc and the growing importance and spread of free market economics also caused a shift in the balance in leather trade and industry.

The last twenty years of the past century, under the influence of export development policies, led to the revitalization and transformation of Turkish tanning, resulting in one of its brightest periods, and making it, along with the textile industry, one of the country's locomotive sectors. The global leather and leather products industry today plays an important role in the world economy and is the subject of approximately USD 100 billion in annual global trade. Asia constitutes the center of gravity of world leather production. Although there are many sub-sectors within the leather industry, the most important items are the raw leather processing and footwear sectors. Turkish leather and leather products industry is more labor-based, consists of small and medium-sized family companies and, with nearly 9,000 enterprises, employment exceeding 71,000, exports of USD 1.5-2 billion to 186 countries, primarily to Russia and EU countries, contributes to the Turkish economy with its position in the 1.1-1.2% band of manufacturing industry added value. As long as people continue their meat-eating habits, raw hides from cattle and small ruminants will undoubtedly continue to be obtained as a by-product of the meat and meat products industry. If this raw material is not utilized, it can cause significant environmental problems that could even threaten human health. However, ironically, the leather industry throughout history has always been complained about and viewed as a polluting sector due to the odors and waste it discharged into its surroundings. Yet the leather industry is actually conducting an environmentally friendly activity by processing raw hide, which is a waste or by-product of the meat and meat products industry. However, during the transformation of raw hide into finished product, bad odors, solid wastes, wastewater and gas emissions released to the environment result both from the raw material's own organic structure and from the large amounts of water and chemical substances used during the production process and the chemical reaction products they create, causing environmental arrows to particularly be directed at the sector. So can we abandon the leather industry? Our answer would likely be no when our needs, health, environment, social characteristics, economy and culture are taken into account, but the leather industry must be sustainable.

It must undergo change again in its requirements and characteristics in a way that ensures it becomes sustainable.

Because leather is a perfect material and experts who process leather are working effectively in close cooperation with sectors such as chemistry, machinery and environment to reduce or eliminate all these negative effects as much as possible. Sustainability in word meaning is defined as maintaining the ability to be permanent while ensuring the continuity of productivity and diversity. Sustainability is one of the most frequently used adjectives for development or growth. Although initially used in the nineteenth century for agriculture, forests and fisheries, sustainability today is a concept carefully studied in every scientific field from A to Z, mostly in the context of economy and environment. Pigou as early as the 1920s had tied human welfare to three types of capital. These were nature; man-made objects and human resources and knowledge accumulation. According to this thinking, if one of these weakens, the others can restore it, and thus, future generations would inherit a fixed level of capital. It can be said that behind the environmental sustainability concept in the environmental sciences sense, there are mostly the problems caused by development-oriented ideology that was on the world agenda in the 1960s and the achievements of the environmental movement that developed from the 1970s onward. Until the 1960s, development was considered sufficient to justify every action and activity. According to this approach, the environment was a matter to be addressed later. Environmental problems were a natural and tolerable consequence of development. However, scientific studies showed that this would not be the case and that nature was beginning to suffer obvious damage. Efforts by aware individuals to create awareness in others ultimately forced country leaders to accept development in a sustainable environment. Today we define sustainable development as "an environmentalist worldview aimed at achieving economic development without making sacrifices from the principle of using environmental values and natural resources through rational methods that do not lead to waste, taking into account the rights and interests of both current and future generations."

Sustainability is the resilience of systems and processes. Sustainability can also be defined as a socio-ecological process characterized by the search for a shared ideal.

"Sustainable development is the expression of a balanced process in which there is complete harmony in the use of resources to meet human needs and desires, in the direction of investments, in guiding technological development and institutional change, and in which both current and future potential are developed. And it generally consists of three pillars: economic sustainability, social sustainability and environmental sustainability. If one of these is absent, the realization of the others is not possible, and therefore anything has no opportunity to be sustainable. If we continue to massacre nature and natural resources in their current form for development and social welfare and use them irresponsibly, one of the most likely consequences will be that future generations' continuity and development potential will be in danger. This strong foresight is the result of a strong awareness formed in the light of mankind's historical development and experiences. The prerequisite for achieving sustainable development is inclusive and sustainable industrialization. It is to bring out dynamic and competitive economic forces that generate employment and income, facilitate international trade and ensure efficient use of resources. For this reason, it is also a major driving force for poverty reduction and the provision of common welfare. The word "sustainability" has gained widespread importance in both consumer and industry discourse in recent years. However, the concept of sustainability is complex in terms of presenting a clear definition and implication for the leather industry. In fact, sustainability in the leather industry has been a topic discussed since the beginning of leather processing. There are very different perceptions and views among actors playing a role within this industry regarding sustainable leather. The issue is also widely discussed in the media, and while most people have a certain view about sustainability, especially when we look at it from a global perspective, we can see different understandings and perceptions.

Sustainability has both short- and long-term effects on societies, communities and industries. Depending on how it is defined, it can lead to a more positive or negative image.

In this uncertainty, the scarcity of studies on the views of all stakeholders in the leather industry regarding what sustainable leather is also plays an important role. Generally, the public does not always associate leather production with sustainability in a positive way. In our daily lives, leather is used in many luxury products, but when it comes to sustainability, consumers tend to associate leather with industrial farming, animal husbandry in the food chain and chemical waste. Raw hide, the starting raw material for leather production, is obtained thanks to animal husbandry, but at the same time it is a by-product in the animal-based food chain. When we look at sustainability, we cannot confine it to leather alone. We must extend it to all substances that are products of animal husbandry. Animal husbandry is generally viewed as a tool for meat production, but animals are also raised for the production of milk, cheese, wool, eggs and many other valuable products. Although the public clearly needs these products mentioned above, leather production is generally not addressed in the same context. To avoid misconceptions, it is a responsibility of the leather industry to continuously convince customers that a significant portion of raw hide for leather production is an inevitable by-product of animal husbandry, and this relationship is shown in Figure 1. As long as this is not overlooked, we can see that there is no contradiction between leather and sustainability. Another important point is that some people in the world may prefer to ban the production, processing and marketing of meat for religious, ethical, health or environmental reasons. These preferences should be considered when we generally evaluate animal products, including finished leather and other processes related to leather.

Figure 1. Inflexible relationship between leather and meat products industry: no driving force

When it comes to the industrial sector, animal hides will exist as a by-product. Less than 2% of animals are raised to produce luxury products, such as fur or reptile hides specifically. For this 2%, one can question whether production is sustainable and compliant with modern standards. Independently of raw hides obtained as a by-product from meat production, society should evaluate whether there is an alternative use for animal hides resulting from this industrial production. Currently, the fate of raw hides not subjected to leather production is incineration or solid waste landfills, which is a situation that reduces the added value of all activities undertaken. While animal hide can be converted into gelatin or collagen-based products, it is difficult to say the same for all waste produced by the livestock industry. Theoretically, biogas production might also be possible, but efficiency is low and necessary infrastructure is lacking. As a result, the highest added value is obtained by subjecting raw hide to a series of operations called tanning for finished leather production, as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Leather production guarantees the best value creation path

In this context, another frequently discussed issue is whether leather trading effectively subsidizes the entire value chain. Raw hides should be marketed and can be marketed to contribute to the total added value of livestock production. If this were not the case, meat producers would need to make significant payments for hide disposal, which would increase the overall cost of meat production. This would directly be reflected in meat and milk prices. Looking at the different components of leather and the final products made from them, since all the raw materials used are obtained from renewable sources, there should be no problems related to sustainability. It should also be emphasized here that most materials used in place of leather are of fossil fuel origin and their negative effects on the environment are well known. In contrast, natural leather is an organic substance that easily reconciles with nature and theoretically can be converted into useful products at a 99% rate, and this high collagen use is summarized in Figure 3.

Products that can be made from animal hide include finished leather, chewing bones for dogs, sausage casings and cosmetic products. For this reason, animal hide should be viewed as a sustainable material, and finished leather made from it should also be regarded as sustainable.

Henceforth, the focus should be on the process of converting animal hide into finished leather and doing so in a sustainable manner. Tanning is an industrial process involving many chemical products. Accordingly, producing leather in a sustainable manner should be the responsibility and an invariable drive of the industry. In other words, the sustainability of the leather product is largely dependent on production methods rather than the raw hide from which it is made. Since sustainability was first defined by the UN Brundtland Commission, it has been one of the fundamental issues of social and industrial development and has become one of the key growth factors for the world economy. No industry, including the leather industry and its supply chain, can separate itself from sustainability concepts.

Figure 3. While collagen has high usage potential, it requires clean processing technologies

To manage this in a fair and comparable manner, sustainable development should be defined specifically for each industry. The criteria used should be measurable and subject to observation in a way that will impact industrial development. This, as shown in Figure 4, provides a footprint as part of sustainability.

Figure 4. Footprint of sustainability

Sustainable development can be approached from three different angles: economic activities, environmental factors, social responsibility. The absence of sustainability in any of these areas causes questioning of the general stages and products. This factor is often limited to environmental science, but development will not be valid unless it is also based on economic and social principles. It is essential that leather production be profitable in a sustainable manner. However, it is also important that missing social responsibility standards, such as fair payment and a safe working environment, emerge as a strong contradiction to sustainable development principles. In terms of achieving a sustainable footprint, it is necessary to look closely at the role that environmental science plays in the leather supply chain. Environmental assessments can be conducted based on a wide range of different variables. As shown in Figure 5, there are four key elements in leather production that need to be classified together to provide a sustainable footprint view.

Figure 5. Sustainability in leather production

Carbon Footprint:

It is a topic on which public awareness has increased significantly in recent years. It is based on analyzing how much carbon dioxide (CO2) is taken into the environment during a production process. For leather, it is important to prevent the CO2 caused by cattle husbandry from being added to the balance created with the production of finished leather itself. The leather industry's efforts to provide scientific data at international scale to correct these misconceptions continue. However, since reduction in CO2 emissions goes hand in hand with less energy and chemical use in finished leather production, it should be maintained as a continuous target for the leather industry. Issues such as transportation and logistics should also be considered within the general carbon footprint scope.

Water Footprint:

It is defined as the total amount of clean water resources used to obtain the goods and services consumed by an individual or society, or applied by the producer to produce goods and services. Since efficient use of water will continue to be one of the serious problems of this century, it will play one of the key roles and its importance will increase further in the coming years. Water, which plays an important role as a solvent and carrier medium in leather production, is a limited resource and will become increasingly expensive both in terms of consumption and wastewater treatment. It is of considerable importance even for leather factories located in arid regions of the world. There is pressure to make innovative efforts in new technologies and chemical substances to provide more effective methods for leather production.

Resource Footprint:

It represents a multifaceted element as it points to different sources used in leather production. However, it should not be overlooked that raw hide is the most important and valuable resource in leather production. Any initiative to increase added value by utilizing low-quality leather, eliminating cutting and trimming scraps, reducing waste products or reducing leather processing costs will provide immediate benefit. Resource footprint also encompasses the effective use of chemical substances based on renewable raw materials and the most suitable production methods in leather processing, such as low energy consumption. Leather production to ensure sustainable disposal must be recyclable or completely biodegradable, meaning it can be recycled for use in the production of new product when the product becomes too old to use, also constituting an example of the cradle-to-cradle approach.

Toxicological or Toxicological Footprint

is another element frequently discussed in the leather industry. Ongoing discussions regarding Cr(VI) and NMP (N-methylpyrrolidone) in the supply chain and final product are among the examples related to this topic. Toxicological footprint in leather production examines the use of hazardous substances as much as product and method safety, legal obligations, and special industry/brand demands. The aim of toxicological footprint should be to minimize and appropriately eliminate harmful substance levels used in leather production. Again, in recent years, new regulations aimed at chemical management and zero waste discharge, including volatile organic compounds (VOCs), have emerged as examples of being examined under this element heading and innovative work being undertaken, due to complex manufacturing processes and long supply chains. Additionally, in the context of supporting production without harming the environment, a driving force is being created on the industry to move towards production with the most current best available technologies. Within the scope of environmental sustainability, full compliance with environmental regulations; promising energy efficiency; defining Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and the Environmental Footprint or Carbon Footprint of Leather (Environmental Footprint); respectively making situational assessments to increase environmental controls and carbon reduction targets and showing maximum importance to the issue, working towards best practice in leather processing processes are included.

Sustainability has gained considerable importance among leather industry customers, consumers and more broadly society, and the industry has turned its attention to the issue.

Each national leather industry tries to develop its own footprint and implements its activities based on different targets it wishes to achieve. As a result, the concept of environmental sustainability for the leather industry is; within its framework, the main objective is to ensure the use of leather or leather products while using less resources, water, energy and hazardous chemicals. Within the scope of ethical and social sustainability, particularly in terms of chemical substances used, for example; full compliance with product safety regulations such as REACH implemented by the EU, full compliance with occupational health and safety regulations for employees (which includes not employing child labor, respecting workers' rights and similar matters in this scope) and commitments to ensure attention to compliance with animal rights and principles are included. Dr. Assoc. Prof. Fazlı Akyüz Istanbul University – Cerrahpaşa Technical Sciences Vocational School Textiles, Clothing, Footwear and Leather Department – Leather Technology Program  

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