Hello everyone, glad to have you back! As most of us know, the use of leather on products is rather common. The use of leather is also present in fast fashion and this could probably be one of the more pollutive materials to use in the ‘buy more and throw quick’ industry of fast fashion. We have briefly talked about the air pollution from tanneries in a post before but today, we will dive into the greater effects from tanneries which is also pollutive to the environment.
As we have seen from our previous post on air pollution, we have discussed that tanning leather is chemically intense and in the midst of it produces pollution of different kinds. Trivalent chromium is often used in the tanning process and the sludge, which also consists of other chemicals from the tanning process, “causes severe ground water contamination in the case of land disposal and chronic air pollution during incineration” (Swarnalatha et al., 2006). Additionally, the remains in the exhaust tanning bath where the unreacted chromium remains and it will eventually be discharged into the wastewater (Swarnalatha et al., 2006). Although there are technologies that will help with the tannery sludge, it is very technological intensive and would most likely be very expensive. Furthermore, there are many small tanneries that have very little regulation and controls (“WorstPolluted.org: Projects Reports”, 2016) which could mean that less regulated factories are less incentivised to treat the sludge. Eventually, those who work in these factories or those who stay around the factories will be the most affected by the polluted wastewaters.
Through the process of leather processing, there is also an accumulation of air pollutants such as “hydrogen sulphide (H2S), ammonia (NH3), sulphur dioxide (SO2), carbon dioxide (CO2), fume of formic acid, chlorine (Cl2), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), etc.” (Nur-E-Alam et al., 2020). The accumulation of these air pollutants will become toxic to humans and any living things around. In addition, exposure to H2S “causes many respiratory diseases” and could “cause delirium, nausea, headaches, and disturbed equilibrium, convulsions, tremors, as well as skin and eye irritation” (Nur-E-Alam et al., 2020). All these harmful air pollutants become a health threat to the workers in those tanneries and will only get worse as the demand for leather increases due to fast fashion.
More often than not, all these issues become hidden in the fast fashion industry as people care less about the quality and the process of making clothes. This definitely shows the less environmentally conscious shoppers and being less aware of the pollutive production of leather is definitely something that consumers have to change. Therefore, it is very important to be conscious of the environmental impact that one contributes. Consumers have to be educated in the process of making clothes such as leather processing to fully understand the extent of pollution they contribute from engaging in fast fashion.
References
Nur-E-Alam, M., Mia, M. A. S., Ahmad, F., & Rahman, M. M. (2020). An overview of chromium removal techniques from tannery effluent. Applied Water Science, 10(9), 205. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13201-020-01286-0
Swarnalatha, S., Ramani, K., Karthi, A. G., & Sekaran, G. (2006). Starved air combustion–solidification/stabilization of primary chemical sludge from a tannery. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 137(1), 304-313. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2006.02.006
WorstPolluted.org : Projects Reports. Worstpolluted.org. (2016). Retrieved 20 October 2020, from https://www.worstpolluted.org/projects_reports/display/136.
