In May, the Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research PCSIR organised a national seminar on the benefits of enzyme technology for the leather industry.
Agha Saiddain, president of the Environmental Society of the Pakistan Tanners Association, stated that if chemicals in the soaking and unhairing/liming process were replaced by enzymes, the pollution load in the effluent could be reduced and solid sludge in primary treatment plants would contain lower levels of contaminants.
He added that if chrome is removed from tannery sludge, much of it can be used for fertiliser. The replacement of sulfides with enzymes would reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Saiddain said that the net weight of the world’s bovine hides after salting was seven million tonnes in 2005.
Had these chemicals been replaced with enzymes, the carbon dioxide saving would have been equivalent to that used by 170,000 cars. According to Saiddain, tanners are well aware of the environmental impact of chemicals and all large tanneries are endeavouring to use less hazardous chemicals.
