Abstract

An outline is given of the environmental aspects of the application of chromium in the leather industry. Results obtained with established and newly developed techniques show that the yearly chromium consumption of the global leather industry could probably be reduced from about 65 to 25 ktons or less. Techniques for the precipitation of chromium and several other metals and those to recover chromium from sludges and other leather wastes, are described. With these techniques an almost complete recycling of chromium is made possible in principle. Any tanning agent must be considered suspect from a toxicological point of view. More thorough toxicological research on water-soluble derivates of chromium and on other tanning materials is necessary before techniques to minimise environmental risks fully can be developed. This paper offers an overview of research in this field at the Institute for Leather and Shoe Research, TNO, Waalwijk, the Netherlands.