Lanxess puts the focus on sustainable leather management
01/02/2011
“This initiative will lay the foundation on which we build our technology platform for sustainable solutions,” said the business unit’s vice-president for development and application, Dr Dietrich Tegtmeyer, at the time of the launch.
Sustainability is more than just a fashion trend, he said. It is vital if sufficient quantities of high-quality leather are to continue to be available at affordable prices in the future without damaging the environment or people’s health. He continued: “Sustainability in the leather sector means more efficient production, processing and recycling. We are also committed to handling both the raw material and the waste produced even more responsibly and to reducing emissions from the end products, to name just some of our main objectives.”
The basic principle of sustainability is that renewable raw materials must not be used up more quickly than they can be produced. “According to our calculations, there is, for example, no way we could maintain current leather production levels using vegetable tanning materials,” Dr Tegtmeyer went on. “That is why most leather is produced with synthetic tanning and retanning materials.” Likewise, the industry must not produce more waste and emissions than can be degraded by the environment within the same period of time. In order to achieve these goals, Lanxess is developing a range of premium products and system solutions that are specially tailored to sustainable leather production.
Among the first SLM products will be optimised retanning materials that contain little or no salt and no free formaldehyde or phenol. Renewable raw materials are to be used wherever possible. Second, there will be a new tanning system based on what the company has called “toxicologically sound organic chemicals for sustainable wet white production”, which it puts on a par with the best chrome tanning procedures.
There will also be a sustainable production process for leather with minimal wastewater impact. To this end, special recipes are being developed on the basis of, for example, efficient beamhouse work or chrome tannage with maximum exhaustion.
Processes designed to reduce the weight of leather and increase its service life and a leather recycling process are also part of SLM.
Summing up, Dr Tegtmeyer said: “With our SLM programme we want to lay down a benchmark for sustainable products and processes in the leather industry. It is not just another logo. Our aim is to create measurable advantages in the form of reduced emissions, the elimination of health risks and a smaller carbon footprint to conserve energy and protect the climate.”
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