Strategic Design for Leather Tannery Industries

Abstract

The province of Tungurahua in Ecuador has a participation of 76% at the national level within the leather production chain with the production of raw materials, these are used in the manufacture of 80% of footwear in the country. These production processes generate environmental problems, the greatest impact being on the water, due to the dumping of liquid waste with chemical contents in rivers, this generates bad odors, gases, smoke and polluting solid waste from this process. According to data from tanneries, approximately 88% of the raw material is transformed, while the remaining 12% is considered as waste (leather trimmings), which are used in other manufacturing processes (footwear, textile industry, leather goods and others), the chip obtained from the process is compressed and discarded. As a preventive action, a process is proposed to generate new products through the use of waste obtained from leather processing. The design methodology is the Double Diamond: discover, define, develop and deliver a new product that reuses this waste, a block of dimensions 150 x 75 x 5 mm and 300 grams of weight was obtained, which can be applied in the sector of construction and allow the transition from a linear production process to a circular process.