Chrome recycling helps Ugandan tannery scoop award
15/05/2013
Leather Industries of Uganda implemented a raft of environmental policies, which included building sedimentation ponds and filter systems, and planting 5,000 trees to protect the nearby Lake Victoria.
It spent £15,000 on a concrete drying bed for solid residues that include leather cuttings, trimmings and gross shavings. Storks eat some of the skin pieces, and then the remainder is burnt, according to local reports.
The factory also uses 50% recycled chrome in its drums. “We bought the plant at $50,000, but we saved lots of money when we started recycling chrome. It took us only one year to recoup our investment,” the tannery’s environment manager, Nelson Agab, told Ugandan daily New Vision.
The tannery collected the prize for best wastewater management at the recent government-backed Resource Efficient and Cleaner Production awards, set up to support companies that adopt clean production technologies.
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