Indian Leather Industry's Problems, And the Answers

Leather is very much a sustainable material. It  is a byproduct of the meat industry and is just 2% of the value of the animal. Since it is a byproduct of the meat industry it does not need additional land or resources.

What gives leather a bad name is the excessive use of chemicals, inability to check and standardise uptakes, value the use of water, no control over discharge of waste water, treated or untreated, lack of control of air quality in the plant and around it leading to foul smell, uncontrolled discharge of solid waste such as fleshing or sludge.

What are the areas in leather which need to be addressed?

1. Resource management is key. Power consumption reduction/optimisation, reduction of water consumption, reduction of chemical consumption and optimisation of manpower. This can be achieved by adopting modern machinery, bulk production techniques, modern chemicals and tanning systems. Just to give an example, the use of water during processing used to be 20-30 litres of water per kilogram of hide processed which can be brought down to 6-8 litres.
2. Waste water management, both solid, liquid and exhaust management, where a tannery can be designed to ensure there are  no solid and liquid discharges. All process water is treated, partially recycled and rest used for horticulture; all solid waste i.e. fleshings, shaving/buffing dust and sludge can be treated biologically to obtain much needed power and hence can in fact looked at being profit centres and no-cost centres. All of this needs initial investments for sure, but can be profit centres going forward.
3. Use of solar power can be another way of saving power consumed during production along with power generated by digesting the solid waste and sludge.
4. Manpower management, proper training in safety norms from time to time, crèche facility, doctor in attendance on the factory site, addressing health concerns of the people employed — all such steps will reinforce confidence in the working staff. Happy people equals better productivity, ensures greater efficiency, and even low rate of attrition, thus reducing the cost involved in training. It would also be important to make sure that the manpower involved is paid according to the salary norms stipulated.
5. Vendor management is critical. Being aware and concerned about the vendors with whom we do business means a more sustainable supply chain. The raw hides and skin suppliers alone can confirm the origin of the material to ensure  traceability. Would it  therefore be a good idea to take the tanning part of the processing closer to where the animal is slaughtered? It is the chemical suppliers who define what is used for tanning, what were the other processes employed to convert raw hides into desired leather with requisite qualities. (The machinery suppliers who can define and offer the tanneries plant and machineries who can offer us the machines which would use less and less power per sqft of leather produced.)
6. Enhance quality and durability of the leather produced for specific end usages so that if desired the lifecycle of such leather can be further increased by allowing repairs of the products. This would delay the leather getting dumped into the recycling plants. Some more work needs to be done so that the finished leather cuttings from shoemaking plants can be biodegraded. About 60% of the leather produced is used in the footwear sector and the ]rest of the product industries left overs. Bio digestion would then yield power and usable manure.

The Indian leather industry is spread across the country and the challenges are different from south to north to east and therefore even defining a standard sustainability practice is not easy. Data collection is scarce and we definitely need to invest in data collection so that a comprehensive solution can be worked out Till then these efforts must continue at the individual level. Complexes in Jalandhar (Punjab), Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh),  Kolkata (West Bengal) and elsewhere in the south must invest in horticulture and create profit centres from treated water. This will also help to improve ground water levels and replenishment of the water source.

The market needs to be developed for local brands and it is imperative to educate the local customer about sustainability issues, and how it could impact future generations. The market in India currently is fed products which are unchecked and flout all international norms. The consumers too are not quite aware of sustainability issues. The local brands have only cost in mind and earn excellent profits which are unchecked. All sustainability efforts as discussed not only improve quality and production yields but also would profitably impact bottom lines for the brand and manufacturers involved across the local supply chain, and find a better and bigger market beyond Indian shores.