Necessity of leather working group certificate

HISTORY:

Tanning is the process by which putrefiable raw hides and skins converted in to non-putrefiable and usable leather. So, this process is the part of human civilization. At the very out set of human civilization it needs food, clothing and the shelter. By hunting wild animal, they met up food and clothing simultaneously. Food from flesh and clothes from hides and skins I.e.leather. So, it is very easy to understand that the history of leather industry is very ancient and parallel to human civilization and got modernized. Its demand will never end as it fill up the basic need of human being. Its main advantage is natural. Raw hides and skins are the main raw materials of leather industry. As a Muslim populated country Bangladesh has the advantages of getting abundant amount and best quality raw hides and skins due to Holy Eid ul Adwa festival through Qurbani. On the other hand, Bangladesh has a unique and most beautiful Black Bengal goat skin at kushtia-jessore-zhenaidaha region for its unique grain pattern. Also the lower labour cost, labour intensity are also many of the reasons for establishing leather industry in Bangladesh. Leather industry in our country started its journey about 200 years ago as non-mechanized by the Nawab family at Dhaka. Day by day it turned in to semi mechanized to mechanized with modern technology. But one thing remains un addressed and that is most important environment.

At present? Bangladesh has established a Leather industrial estate at Savar, Dhaka with the aim of pollution free leather processing and production. There are 130 industrial plots of different sizes. But unfortunately, due to fault in Central effluent treatment plants (CETP) not a single industry is working there in full swing. There are also a few leather industries running at other places like Chattogram,Gazipur and Jashore.

Types of Leather industry: –

According to manufacturing process, these are of 3 (Three)types: –
a) Wet-blue industry.
b) Crust industry and
c) Finishing industry.
There are about 300 such industries running across the country. For making a finished leather from raw hides and skins there are about 50 steps under Wet-blue to crust to finish stages.About 100 to 120 types of chemicals are used.

According to function manufacturing techniques are of 2 types as below:
a) Chemical process and b) Mechanical process.

In chemical processing huge amount of water is used. About 25 litres water is used for making one sq,ft. finished leather from raw hides and skins. Raw hides and skins are consisting of keratin(hairs), fats, collagen (protein) and water.But leather is only collagen. So, keratins and fats are removed from raw hides and skins by different chemical and mechanical process and many chemicals are injected and mechanical effect are applied to make a usable finished leather. About 70 percent weight of total raw hides and skins are water, fats, greases, hairs and adhered fleshes. about 30 percent of the total weight of raw hides and skins is collagen from which usable finished leather is produced. So, by chemical and mechanical treatment huge amount and large volume of liquid, semi liquid effluent is discreet. These effluent needs effective treatment and recycling as it destroys the environment and creates bad odour, wastages,dirt’s and as well as chemical hazards.

Tanning has the unenviable reputation for being one of the filthiest evil smellingof industries.This reputation was established by the character of the village tannery hundreds of years ago. With the expansion of the industries to modern to highly mechanizedfactories in urban areas the problem became more acute and the reputation of the industry deteriorated further. Today with the population explosions and the strain being put on our world for saving our natural resources it is becoming more apparent that the disposal of wastages is a matter of responsibility to the society around it.Environment is largely polluting during wet processing like soaking, unhairing, liming, fleshing, tanning, retanning, fat liquoring, dyeing and finishing.

Tannery wastages and chemicals polluting the receiving water and air in four ways: –
a) physically) Chemicallyc) Physiologically and d) Biologically.

a) Physically: The total solid content of tannery effluent is perhaps the highest of all industrial effluents. Though the average solid content of tannery effluent is approximately 20000 mg/litre of effluent, but sometimes this figure goes as high as 150000 mg/litre. Out of this solid nearly 20 percent remain in suspended forms and rest deposits on the river bed reducing its water carrying capacity. The major portion of this solid comes from lime yard and vegetable tanning yard.

b) Chemically: – About 100 to 120 types chemicals are used during producing leather from raw hides and skins. after processing these chemicals came out as effluent. Even though the suspended materials are removed from the tannery waste water, latter contains soluble and colloidal chemicals which cannot be removed even by ultra-filtration. These

chemicals are of two types: a) inorganic and b) organic.

The inorganic soluble chemicals like acids, salts, alkalis etc change the pH of the receiving water which is not desirable for the survival of the aquatic species. The heavy metals like chromium, barium, arsenic etc are responsible for the toxicity of the receiving water.

c)physiologically: – Tannery effluents impartcolour, produces odour or change the taste of receiving water and fishes, strong public agitation creates problems.

d)Biologically: – The organic compounds present in the effluent are subjected to biological degradation by different types of microorganisms and are finally converted in to co2 and h2o.

For such biological degradation huge amount of oxygen is used. As a result, the occluded oxygen of the receiving water is consumed killing all the aquatic lives and allowing harmful anerobic bacteria, mold,fungi to grow rapidly.

Air pollution: –

During finishing of tanned leather by spraying huge amount hazardous chemicals are emitting in the air in gaseous forms. This is injurious to our lung. Sustainable Development: – According to Brundtland commission in its 1987, report,” Our common future,

“Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.

Sustainable development has three goals: –

1. To minimize the depletion of natural resources.
2. To promote development without causing harm to the environment.
3. To make use of environmentally friendly practices.

So,for sustainable development it is mandatory to make development or production without hampering or destroying the environment. We can easily make an eco-friendly industry by using eco-friendly chemical, effluent treatment plant and applying eco- friendly production process.

But the above-mentioned tanneries or tanning industries are not the end of leather industries. Now we have built many footwear industries, leather product industries like leather bag, money bag,belt,upholstery,leather parts industries. In these industries our finished leathers are used as raw materials. There are about 30 famous footwear and product industries in our countries exporting their product abroad. We are exporting our goods after meeting the needs of the country. We have also leather bye-product like gelatine producing industries,which is used for capsule making for pharmaceutical, and also as adhesive.

EFFECT ON OUR ECONOMY BY LEATHER SECTOR: –

At present leather sector is the 3rd highest export earner of our country. Once it was the 2nd highest export earner of our country. For last 3 to 4 years this leather sector is facing various problems. We shall discuss these problems and solution later. Now effect on our economy is discussed below: –

Export Earnings (in M.USD) leather footwear leather goods
2020-2021 119.14 570 253
2019-2020 94 462 216

Employment: About 400000 lacs labour are working in this sector

Banks Investment: – In crore taka
Tannery : 7000
Footwear : 1600
Leather goods : 400
But of this loans and advances about 2000 crore taka is classified as bad and loss.

Though foot wear export is increasing but leather export is not increasing in quantity. We are also not getting actual price. There are many reasons behind it. These are: –
1. Need for Leather working group certificate.
2. Failure of Central effluent treatment plant to work.
3. Absence of ETP.
4. Sudden cut off utility in existing tannery at Hazaribagh by the government without any        preparation to run the industry in new place.
5. Government decision to again start exporting of wet blue leather.
6. Back-lock in loan repayment to bank
7. Huge amount of overdue credit with suppliers of raw hides and skins traders.
8. Lack of proper monitoring and responsibility from all the corners for the interest of the        country.
9. Polluting the environment
10.Trafficking of raw hides and skins through the border at higher price than the local              market or the country.
11. Local whole-sale traders are not interested to supply raw hides and skins to tannery            owner as they have huge amount of overdue taka to them for year after year.

But footwear industry has grown rapidly from 2014-2015 to2018-2019.From 2019-2020 export is decreasing due to covid pandemic and Russia-Ukraine war. From 2021-2022 the export target of this year already achieved within first 8 months.

Now it is clear from the above data that without Leather Working group certificate wecannot export our crust, finished leather,footwear and leather goods. LWG certificate is mandatory requirement for foreign buyers like ——-

What is LWG: –

• LWG means leather working group.It is a not for profit organization responsible for the world’s leading environmental certification for the leather manufacturing industry. Created in 2005, it is the brain child of a group of well-known brands and leather manufacturer that came together to focus on the sustainability in the leather sector. Such as Adidas, Clarks, Ikea, Nike, Marks and spencer, New balance and Timberland, as well as key leather manufacturing companies from across the globe. As a multi-stake holder group LWG boasts over 300 members from across the supply chain, including: –
• Brands and retailers that sell leather products to the consumers’
• Manufacturer of leather.
• Traders of parts processed and finished leather.
• Manufacturer of leather garments, footwear and furniture
• Suppliers of chemicals, machinery and testing for the leather industry.
• Associations with in and related to leather industry.

To get LWG certificate we have to fulfil many conditions. Of these conditions setting up of Effluenttreatment plant is the most important. It carries maximum weight.So that our government already set up a separate Leather industrial estate with a Central effluent treatment plant by the help of China.Industrial waste water is called effluent. The effluent treatment covers the mechanisms and processes used to treat so that after treatment this waste water can be reused or released to a sanitary sewer or to a surface water in the environment.

Effluent treatment plant can be set up privately or by the government as central or in single factory wise.

Status of our Central effluent treatment plant: –

Following the mandatory condition of Leather Working group to build a sustainable world for the next generation effluent treatment plant is must for the leather industry. Bangladesh government with the help of China government built a Central effluent treatment plant at Chamra Shilpa nagari ,savar, Dhaka in 2017, after 10 years of construction period. But it is very unfortunate that now authorities admit CETP is ineffective. The problems of the existing CETP are: –

1. It has lack of facilities to treat salt and chromium.
2. It is unable to treat waste according to projections as it has had structural faults from the beginning.
3. The CETP and 3 common chrome recovery units are not performing to expected standard.
4. The original design of the plant did not consider a sedimentation tank to remove suspended solids from water.
5. The conveyance system inside the machine cannot calibrate the capacity of CETP.
6. The total capacity of 3 CCRU is 1050 cubic metres, whereas the industry produces around 5000 cubic metres of chromium waste on a regular basis.
7. The CETP is also not equipped with reverse osmosis technology to treat salt.
8. It does not include an integrated grease removal system.
9. It lacks anysystem to distinguish different types of waste produced in the tanning process.

As a result, CETP is not functioning from beginning. The leather industries are polluting the environment as it did before. Manufacturers of leather, footwear and leather goods are not getting LWG certificate. Without LWG certificate there is no buyer for our goods accept China. China is purchasing our goods at very lower price. At present price of per sq. Ft finished leather is 1.00 to 1.2 0 USD. On the other hand, if we had the Effluent treatment plant I.e. LWG certificate the selling price per sq. Ft finished leather would be 3.00 USD.

Kazi Md. Wahidul Islam

General Manager, Rupali Bank Limited.