Mike Redwood reviews the situation in Bangladesh and the need for the global leather industry to work in unison to support each other and protect leather’s image, as published by ILM.

Workers dump waste at Savar

At the end of November 2021, the Bangladesh government ran an investment seminar on the leather industry; it was a short but useful session. The forward-thinking attitude of many Bangladesh tanners and shoemakers was apparent and there were two significant takeaways.

Firstly, most of the speakers understood the need to resolve the major environmental issues they continue to face, although the chairman of the seminar was not very willing to dwell on the subject. Secondly, some shoemakers spoke about using more synthetics, in part at least as a result of global disquiet over the environmental credentials of Bangladeshi made leather.

Press reports this week indicate that both were all too timely. The new tannery waste treatment plant at Savar has been closed for non-compliance, with previous comments suggesting that large parts are not working, the input piping is too small for the tanneries output and there is no provision for solid waste.

Non-leather footwear could Benefit…….to read the rest of this article by Dr Redwood, click on Savar is a tale of waste