The very first Zero Liquid Discharge tannery in China is The Third Pole of the Earth Leather Industrial Co. Ltd based in Lhasa in the Tibet autonomous region of China.

Due to the nature ecosystem of Lhasa, the tannery ensures zero water emission, as well as treatment facilities by recycling, recovery, and reuse of the treated wastewater using advanced cleanup technology.

With the use of Zeology, these mainly contain zeolite, as well as the natural collagen. Therefore, these waste streams are typically heavy metal-free, white of color and easy to handle. Furthermore, the sludge stream can be treated so that it meets the right conditions to be biodegradable.

The tannery is adopting MVR evaporators (sometimes called Vapor Compression Evaporators) to remove water from effluents with minimum energy consumption and maximum plant availability while delivering high condensate quality.