An Overview of Leather Processing

A current watchword in the leather industry is sustainability, which may be defined in terms of the ecological impact, incorporating efficient, and effective use of reagents and materials, and the present and future effective and efficient development of new collagenic biomaterials in an increasingly economically competitive global sector. Correct mechanisms in leather science and their understanding for application in leather technology are critical: current thinking developed over the last quarter of a century constitutes a shift in approach to leather science, yielding a new paradigm in leather technology. The result is a new way of ensuring that development strategies are likely to be predictably successful, unlike the inevitable outcome of the alternative, ‘trial and error’.