Tannery waste management and cleaner production of leather in beam house and tanning section: A review

Abstract

Leather has long been essential for crafting everyday items such as footwear, jackets, belts, hats, and other accessories. However, the tannery industry generates complex effluents characterized by elevated levels of organic and inorganic pollutants, including chromium, sulfides, nitrogenous compounds, and suspended as well as dissolved solids. When tannery effluent is improperly disposed of, it contaminates water and sewage, releases heavy metals into the environment, and has a negative effect on human health by way of the food chain. Tannery effluents and solid waste pose significant environmental challenges. This review explores biological, chemical, and integrated wastewater treatments, sustainable solid waste management strategies, and innovative reuse approaches, emphasizing eco-friendly solutions like adsorption, composting, and elastin extraction for sustainable leather processing and waste reduction. With a focus on ways to lessen the dangers to the environment and human health connected with tannery operations, the study also examines cleaner production methods and technology solutions targeted at lowering the pollutant load during the leather manufacturing process. In beam house operation such as protease-based hair removal, and enzymatic process in liming operation decreases the chemical oxygen demand, total solids and sulphide content in tannery effluent in compression to conventional liming and unhairing methods.