Life cycle assessment as a tool for the environmental improvement of the leather industry

authored by: Velusamy Mozhiarasi, Sara Zahedi Nezhad, Velmurugan Punitha, Pious Michealammal Benish Rose, Indrasis Das, Dirk Weichgrebe, Shanmugham Venkatachalam Srinivasan
Abstract: Climate change is becoming a serious global problem for the industrial sector to continue to serve its share in the global market. Among these, leather is one of the major industrial sectors facing changes in production and consumption patterns with the rising environmental concerns and societal demands though leather sector utilizes the byproduct (raw hide/skin) generated from meat industry and converts into a value-added product for fashion market. The changes result from the sudden shift towards cleaner technology options in leather processing from conventional methods that proposed a transition to a more sustainable model where the reuse/recycling of waste is targeted. In this transition, Life cycle assessment (LCA) is an important tool that supports decision-making and aids in analyzing the environmental impacts of a product/process. Because the selection of materials/production process employed decides the resultant environmental impact during a product manufacture and also until its life cycle. So, in this aspect, directing consumption towards products that has least environmental impact, estimating and comparison of the different options becomes a fundamental pre-requisite. In the leather sector, the LCA tool is mainly applied to determine the overall environmental impacts resulting from leather manufacture, product or waste. This book chapter details with the leather production process and LCA applications, waste treatment and the application of LCA tools for the environmental improvement of leather industries. This detailed understanding of the LCA tool would help the users to understand the life cycle perspective of the leather industry to support its sustainable growth in the near future.
Organisation(s): Institute of Sanitary Engineering and Waste Management
External Organisation(s): Central Leather Research Institute
Type: Contribution to book/anthology
Pages: 305-336
No. of pages: 32
Publication date: 2025
Publication status: Published
Peer reviewed: Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas: General Engineering, General Chemical Engineering
Sustainable Development Goals: SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being, SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy, SDG 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth, SDG 12 - Responsible Consumption and Production, SDG 13 - Climate Action
Electronic version(s): https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-443-13844-7.00001-7 (Access: Closed)