Call for tanners to prepare for “fundamental change”
The chief executive of leather chemicals group Royal Smit & Zoon, Hans van Haarst, has said “a fundamental change” is taking place in the global leather industry and tanners around the world and their suppliers need to prepare for it.
Writing in a new edition of a company monthly newsletter, Mr van Haarst drew attention to the recent inclusion of glutardialdehyde on the European Chemicals Agency’s list of substances of very high concern (SVHC).
Linked to this, he said the agency’s committee that oversees development in regulations around REACH will decide later in September on proposals to restrict the concentration limit of Cr(VI) in leather from 3mg/kg to 1mg/kg.
Also on the subject of chrome, he pointed out that earlier this year the Chinese government implemented legislation under which the handling of chromium-containing waste streams is now heavily controlled and restricted.
“These changes will not have an immediate, visible impact,” Hans van Haarst said, “but they certainly give a strong signal to tanners around the world to prepare for a phase-out of both glutardialdehyde and chromium tanning.”
He said this will mean important changes to tanning processes and that recipes will have to be reformulated and resubmitted for certification. He added that consumers will have to be “informed and educated” about the changes. “The time to start this process is now,” he continued, “and chemical companies, including Royal Smit & Zoon, are ready to take on this challenge.”
Viable alternatives are already available, and, Mr van Haarst suggested, are likely to take the place of glutardialdehyde and chromium in tanning processes. “These solutions will need to balance article quality, specifications, and properties with cost and environmental footprint,” he explained. “It is of the utmost importance that suppliers provide solutions that are compliant with current and future laws and regulations, are certified, and come with transparent facts and figures, for instance from lifecycle assessments.”
He said Royal Smit & Zoon’s Nera subsidiary was already working with more than 50 tanneries and a large number of brands around the world to bring to market leather and finished leather products made using the company’s Zeology tanning concept.
Image: Hans van Haarst with Queen Máxima of the Netherlands.
Credit: Twycer.
