Gruppo Dani film links leather to life expectancy
Arzignano-based tanning group Dani has produced an animated film to highlight what it has called an “unexpected connection” between using leather and people’s life expectancy.
The short film tracks an increase in the global population from 1.6 billion people in 1900 to a projected 9.7 billion in 2050. Over the same span of time, people’s life expectancy has increased from 32 years in 1900 to an expected 75 years in 2050. These figures are global averages.
This increase, Dani says in the film, is the result of changes in people’s diets. Better access to animal-based complete proteins in milk, cheese and meat has helped people live longer. In 2001, there was, globally, a consumption level of 58 million tonnes of meat and of 581 million tonnes of cheese.
The figures remained at these levels for most of the decade that followed but, by 2011, had increased to 65 million tonnes of meat and 712 million tonnes of dairy products. Its projection is that, in 2021, the levels of consumption will be 72 million tonnes of meat and 860 million tonnes of dairy, with the figures rising to 78 million tonnes of meat and 981 million tonnes of dairy by 2028, and further increases in the years that follow.
From this, Gruppo Dani has calculated that a large volume of bovine hides will continue to be available and it offers an estimate of 7 million tonnes per year. “We can bury these hides in landfill or burn them,” the tanning group said, “or we can upcycle them to make leather.”
It went on to explain the appeal of leather, its durability, elegance and versatility.
In addition, it pointed out that by-products deriving from the tanning process also have value, for example as sources of energy or as raw materials for the food industry, cosmetics and agricultural products.
