European workshop on accidents/injuries at the workplace

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NEWS 3/2023

European workshop on accidents/injuries at the workplace

On 19 September 2023, on the premises of Lineapelle, the international leather fair in Milan, the European social partners for the tanning and leather sector, COTANCE and industriAll European Trade Union, held a European workshop to review the state of play in Workplace Safety in European Tanneries. 
 
The workshop, developed as part of the EU-funded social dialogue project ‘’Towards Zero Adverse Impact of the European Leather Industry – GREEN DEAL LEATHER’’, brought together employers, trade unions and other stakeholders to review the results of a study on Injuries/Incidents at the workplace and discuss how to progress towards ”Zero Impact”.

(Left to right) Manuel Rios (President of COTANCE), Patrizia Pitronaci (industriAll-Europe), Gustavo Gonzalez-Quijano (COTANCE), Silvia Pedrana (UNIC)

Opening the event, Manuel Rios, President of COTANCE, said:
 
“Our common ambition is to drive positive change in the global leather industry by “leading by example”. The present report pulls together all sector-specific information on tannery workplace accidents in Europe for better understanding them and drawing lessons for improved workplace safety in tanneries.”

COTANCE’s Secretary General, Gustavo Gonzalez-Quijano, explained the context of the Green Deal Leather project, emphasising: ”Since COTANCE started the Social Sectoral Dialogue with its Trade Union counterparts some 25 years ago, workers’ health and safety has always been at the top of our agenda. We understand that this concern ought to be the first priority when it comes to implementing Due Diligence in leather supply chains, as any accident at the workplace is irremediably a failure, with adverse consequences, above all, for the victim, but also for the employer.”

With 1102 accidents in 2021, the incidence of accidents at work in European tanneries is 3,2%. This figure includes accidents on the way to or from the workplace. Serious accidents are rare, most are wounds (49%), including superficial cuts concerning mainly the upper limbs (47%) with half involving hands (23%). From 2019 to 2021 accidents have decreased by 16% (both female and males).

In the words of Judith Kirston-Darling, Deputy General  Secretary ofindustriAll-Europe:
 
“Quality social dialogue is essential to ensure a safe tanning and leather sector in Europe. We encourage all employers to produce relevant data on occupational health and safety issues and to work closely with workers and their representatives at site level to ensure that all workers are properly trained, and that adequate health and safety measures are fully respected by both sides. By working together in an open and positive manner, we can eliminate accidents in the workplace and keep workers safe.’’

The Green Deal Leather study on ”Injuries/Incidents at the workplace” is available for download on COTANCE’s website.

A recording of the Workshop is available on our You Tube channel.

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The sole responsibility for the content of this newsletter lies with the authors. It does not represent the opinion of the EU. The European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

History and Leather

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The archaeological site in Schöningen (Lower Saxony) has already brought back various evidence from the Lower Paleolithic over the years: spears, arrows, sticks. More recently, researchers have focused on some bear remains: they date back 320,000 years and are particularly interesting because they carry engraving traces.
They are evidence, quite rare for that time, that hominids in northern Europe also hunted and skinned bears in order to protect themselves from the cold. Leather features in human history.
Leather has long been in the history of man, and the study of leatherworking methods shows the evolution of traditional methods through to the modern processing methods used today. This is why the discovery in Spain of a hip bone of a large mammal (horse or bison) used for punching hides has aroused some excitement: it dates back 39,600 years and testifies to the method of stitching leather clothing.

Leather is a noble and versatile material: there is no civilization that has not made great use of it. But leather is a biological material, as is well known, and therefore certain artifacts have been allowed to reach us only by accident. Certainly, monumental or artistic applications have been preserved and retained, such as Renaissance corami.

But so many everyday objects have been lost. When some of them are found, because the item happened to be in a sufficiently arid or oxygen-deprived environment for it not to come undone, it opens incredible windows into past eras. One cannot remain indifferent to the 3,500-year-old Egyptian footwear, or the fourth-century A.D. Viking sandal that ended up who knows how on a Norwegian peak to the two-millennia-old British toy.

Leather manufacturing over the centuries has shaped the territories. Each town had its own production sites and its own typicality, in a pattern of development that harmonized urban design and sense of community. UNIC-Italian Tanneries took charge of the restoration of a tannery in Pompeii, a location as unique as the archaeological excavation that hosts it.

Similar connections between cities and tanneries can be found all over the world and cut across eras. Some evidence suggests that from the 18th century onward Belfast grew up around leather laboratories, in Guadalcanal (Spain) an open-air museum has been set up so that recently discovered medieval tanneries can be visited, and in Milan, a city with many waterways that lent itself well to leather-working activities, vestiges of the classical and late antique periods are being studied and celebrated, again with the support of UNIC.

Leather is so much a part of human history that, sometimes, we also come across curious coincidences. It happens, to take one example, that Hermès opens a new atelier in France, where archaeological studies show that hunter-gatherers were already working with animal dermis 13,000 years ago. But the relationship between leather and history is not only to be read in the past: it is also to the future. The next chapters are yet to be written.

Edited in July 2023 by

In colaboration with

Leather and Alternatives

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Our German member Verband der Deutschen Lederindustrie e.V. (VDL) has been added to the list of qualified trade associations under the German Unfair Competition Act (Gesetz gegen den unlauteren Wettbewerb) and is now authorised to issue legal warnings to companies using the word leather in a misleading way in their advertising. In COTANCE, we care about transparency, and we fight against unfair claims. We are not doing this to make money or gain notoriety, but simply because our affiliated companies are harmed when others misuse the term leather. Let us be clear, we are not against leather alternatives – but we are against consumer deception. That is why it is sometimes worthwhile for us to take note of what others are doing.

A former Adidas marketing executive, Eric Liedtke gives us food for thought in ”Microplastics are becoming an omnipresent killing machine”, an interview published in ”Brand Eins” (issue 2/23).
 
For starters, he doesn’t like the term sustainability, arguing that it needs to be explained and only makes sense if companies outline exactly which measures they are taking and which they are not.  We can only agree.

Liedtke describes PET (polyethylene terephthalate) as an eternal material that never completely disappears. It eventually decomposes into microplastics and enters our food chain, our bloodstream and our lungs via soil, air and water. He therefore calls microplastics an omnipresent killing machine and can imagine that in the future recycled plastic will no longer be considered sustainable. Here, too, we can only agree.
 
Therefore he advises a shift to plant and mineral materials, which at the end of their use do not turn into waste,but return to the earth. Here, we would like to add animal-based materials.

Liedtke also estimates that as a consumer you need a doctorate if you want to find your way through sustainability smokescreens such as compostable, regenerative or recycled. Many buyers of jerseys made from recycled PET would be surprised to learn that they pump more microplastics into the environment with the recycled jersey than with a jersey made from new PET fibres. Also, here we can only agree. Advertising is advertising and rarely serious science.

While Liedtke attests that customers are interested in environmentally friendly products, he notes that recycled plastic is still plastic. Indeed, there are no simple solutions.

His brief description of marketing is also interesting: ”How do you make an object of desire out of a random product that ultimately nobody needs? Through good storytelling”. Often, leather is misrepresented to tell stories about other materials and it is here that COTANCE and its members step in to make sure that truth about leather is understood.
 
An insightful article that evidences that there are many ways to make the world a better place. None is easy or perfect, but some are deceptive and using incorrect means. And even though Liedtke did not mention leather in the interview, leather, as a natural material, used since the eve of time, is one of these ways!

Edited in March 2023 by

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Dying for leather?

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This kind of rhetoric is often heard when people talk about desirable bags, shoes, saddles, jackets, sofas…  They must own them, they ”can’t live without them”, but of course nobody would actually die for them.

Now, whether people “live or die” for leather or not, certain activist groups claim that ”every year a billion animals are killed for leather”. Can this be true? The answer is clearly, NO!

But where does that statement come from? Who knows… But the intention behind it is clear; to undermine the good reputation of leather in the belief that it will hurt the meat industry.

However, let’s look at the facts. The vast majority of leathers comes from hides and skins of cattle, sheep, goats and pigs (as people can find out by searching on the Internet). These farm animals are kept because they provide milk and meat for human consumption, and they often graze on land that is not suitable for crops (e.g. steppe, grassland).  However, these animals are killed for meat for human nutrition, not for the production of leather. The hide or the skin is just a by-product and thank to their processing into leather, they do not become waste.
Since cattle are larger than sheep and goats, most leather comes from cattle. According to the WWF, there are 1.6 billion cattle on the planet, and according to the FAO 293 million were slaughtered in 2020.

Still not sure? Cattle weighs anything between 200 to over a 1000 kg. The hide is only 7% of the weight and 1% of the value. What do think happens to the rest of the animal. Does anyone believe that 100s of kg of meat, bones,  and offal are thrown away while only the hide is kept for leather? Imagine the waste mountain.

If we want to make the world a better place, we need reliable information. That is information on which we can build an opinion. One thing is irrefutable; Hides & skins are by-products of milk and meat production and it is better to use them as leather than to turn them into waste.

Edited in October 2022 by

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Avoid microplastics, choose leather

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Leather imitations, such so-called ‘vegan leather’ and ‘eco-leather’, are usually made from polyurethane (PU) or polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Recently they include plastics incorporating plant-based materials.

As long as these fossil fuel-based derivatives remain cheap, their use will increase, with the associated environmental impacts during their use and at the end of their life. Unlike leather, synthetic polymers are prone to shedding microfibres and do not degrade easily in nature. When disposed of, typically after a short use period, they tend to remain in the environment for a very long time, emitting harmful substances and polluting the environment. A growing amount of microplastics (fragments of plastics less than 5 mm) in marine and freshwaters has been shown by numerous studies (link1, link2).

Are our clothes and footwear also responsible for microplastics?

The most common sources of microplastic pollution are polypropylene in packaging materials and PET used in the manufacture of bottles. PET from plastic bottles is increasingly recycled into clothing and footwear, but recycling after this second lifecycle has not yet been solved.

Animals and people may inhale microparticles or ingest them with food and water. Tiny particles of microplastics have been found in crustaceans and other aquatic life at the very start of the food chain. Scientist analysed blood samples of healthy adult donors and found microplastic particles in most samples (link3).

Microplastics get into nature when plastic waste breaks down, from tyre abrasion, but also when clothing made of synthetic fibres is washed. The proportion of microplastics from clothing might be small, but it goes straight into wastewater and the environment. Abrasion of plastic soles can also cause microplastic pollution.

So what does microplastic have to do with leather? Leather is the natural alternative to plastic!
Choosing leather in consumer products make them not only more appealing, but helps curb microplastic pollution. Indeed, leather is the result of the recycling of a residue of meat production, it does not cause microplastics shedding and at the end of a very long lifecycle, is capable of biodegrading providing micronutrients for plant growth.

You do a good thing for the planet if you chose leather shoes, leather clothes or bags. You reduce a waste from livestock, support a recycling industry that creates beauty

Edited in June 2022 by

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European Tanners are modern Alchemists

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Some encounters are real experiences; they make us feel good and won’t be forgotten. Among them is the experience of leather. Soft, firm, supple, and strong, leather comes with special sensory properties. It is has an appearance, a smell, a touch, a sound that appeals to our senses.

These sensations, so specific to leather, would not be possible without the transformation of an animal skin into a noble material. Through the tanning process, the skin is transformed into the rot-proof and highly durable material, with many properties we know as leather. This process has always fascinated man. Surrounded by poetry and mystery, it has been the subject of much research so that it could be better understood and improved. This research is the prerogative of tanners, the true alchemists of tanning.

Let’s consider the current processes for tanning leather:


Chrome Tanning:

Thanks to this type of tanning, using chromium III salts, leathers become supple, very resistant to friction and heat, and waterproof, and can be dyed in a wide range of colours. This is why 85% of leathers tanned in the world are chrome tanned.
 

In recent years, due to the risk of the formation of chromium VI, a skin-sensitising contaminant, chrome tanning has had a bad press. However, this is only an issue in poorly made leather. The risk can be well managed by the implementation of measures and controls to ensure consumer safety, as is the case in Europe. This is enforced by the restriction on chromium VI in leather, implemented in the EU REACH regulations.

Synthetic Tanning:

Some tanners practice chrome-free tanning, called synthetic tanning. This process is based on chemistry, using substances that interact with the collagen of the skin and tan it. The resulting leather has different properties to chrome-tanned leather. This means that leather made using these tanning materials may not be suitable for all the applications of chrome-tanned leather. Conversely, synthetically-tanned leathers may perform better in some applications. European tanners are working with their technical centres and chemicals suppliers to expand the options and applications of synthetic tanning.

Vegetable Tanning:
Vegetable tanning was already introduced in our previous Newsletter.

With its characteristic smell, its warm colours that deepen over time and this beautiful ageing effect called “patina”, vegetable-tanned leather embodies the very essence of this age-old material.

In conclusion, there is no competition between the different types of tanning; they offer a range of possibilities underlining the complexity and subtlety of the tanners’ know-how. Giving leather special properties shows the true skills of a tanner!
 
European tanners are modern alchemists. They know how to mix these tanning and retanning processes to make unique leathers, but also work ethically and responsibly while respecting people and the environment.

Edited in May 2022 by

Innovation: drivers for the future

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Innovation has always been necessary, but with emerging trends such as an increasing global population, urbanization, pressure on food production and climate change, the challenges for innovation in sustainability have increased.

The European tanning sector began its journey of innovation many years ago, with investment in industrial automation and technological evolution of production processes. More recently, progress has been seen in the use of digital technology and product research to stimulate green transformation. European tanners aim for long-term sustainable growth while enhancing their ability to respond to rapid market changes.

There are plenty of concrete successes along the innovation path of Europe’s tanning sector.

Take for example the use of enzymes in the soaking and liming processes where hides or skins are cleaned. These enzymes open the pores of the hides and skins, gently releasing the hair which can be recovered as a by-product. As it is free of harsh chemicals, this recovered hair or wool can then be reused as a resource, illustrating the circularity of the tanning industry.

But environmental considerations are not the only drivers of innovation in the tanning industry. Increases in energy or raw material costs can also be a driver, notably in process efficiency. High exhaustion tanning processes, heat pumps and automated drum feeding contribute to the saving of valuable resources, which is further enhanced by digitalization.

The future will bring automated plants equipped with sensors to monitor production processes. This will lead to greater production flexibility, while minimizing the use of water, energy and chemicals, and at the same time, limit the risks in the workplace related to the human/machine interface or exposure to chemical products.

The passion for continuous innovation is transmitted to the younger generation of tanners in the courses taken in Europe’s reputed vocational education & training institutions.

Finally, the need for research and innovation in the tanning industry derives also from the cultural and creative side of the leather business. Success on the European leather market requires constant customization of technological solutions. European tanners continue to develop an extremely varied and ever-changing product portfolio. This is what makes European leather special and different to all others.

Edited in April 2022 by

in collaboration with

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Leather and deforestation; not to blame but willing to help

Due to its link with the meat industry, leather is often claimed to be a cause of the deforestation in vulnerable environments, such as the Amazon. Reports by NGOs have attempted to associate fashion brands and automotive companies to deforestation and leather is one of the commodities that may be subject to new due diligence requirements contained in proposed regulations in the EU, UK and possibly, the USA.

These concerns have given rise to considerable activity by the industry to improve transparency and traceability within the leather supply chain. Action has been taken to ensure, as far as possible, that the leather supply chain does not contain hides sourced from illegally deforested areas and to give confidence to downstream customers and consumers that their products are not contributing to deforestation.

However, it must be understood that leather does not drive the rearing of livestock. The production of leather is all but incidental to that. By extension, it does not drive deforestation. Research at the University of Montana has shown that demand for hides for leather has no direct influence on the number of animals reared and slaughtered. This means that even the best efforts of the leather sector will have a limited impact in the fight against illegal deforestation.

It must also be recognised that the illegal deforestation in the regions of concern is due to corruption, abuses of power, ’land grabbing’ and ’cattle laundering’. Even the most diligent companies could be misled on the provenance of the raw materials that they source, particularly from its indirect suppliers. Moreover, most tanneries are small, which exacerbates the challenge. As a customer of the meat industry, leather manufacturers are excluded from the first stages of the supply chain and are not involved in the sourcing and tracing of livestock.

Furthermore, hides or skins are of little importance to the meat value chain; hides may represent as little as 0.8% of the animal’s value, and globally, up to 40% are simply thrown away

The leather sector has very little scope to influence the upstream supply chain. Farmers are paid for the whole animal and receive no premium for the hide or skin. As such, hides and skins have no influence on the rearing of livestock. Hence, while the leather industry supports the elimination of deforestation-sourced raw materials from its supply chain, the limitations on its influence on that part of the supply chain must be recognised and expectations must be tempered with pragmatism. Stigmatising leather by defining it legally as a deforestation risk product is unfair and unhelpful.

Nonetheless, the global leather industry does not deny its place in supply chains that carry deforestation risks, and it will play its part in seeking to resolve the issues by pushing for increased transparency and traceability of raw materials. By engaging with our suppliers and insisting on change, leather manufacturers and their customers can be part of the solution.

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Go for Slow Leather – choose leather!

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There was a time, not so long ago, when we were living in a throw-away society. New cheap materials were even introduced, promoting this mentality. Today, however, we are aware of the importance of sustainability and the necessity to take responsibility for our purchasing choices. We can no longer afford to live in a world with a throw-away state of mind.

With resources shrinking and waste accumulating, it is our responsibility not only to choose well, but also to stretch the lifetime of, the products we buy. We need to slow down if we want to save the planet.

Products that last longer help us to have a much lower environmental footprint as the environmental impact of their production is stretched over the duration of their use. It goes without saying that longer living products need materials that are reliable and age well.

The world needs materials that are sustainable; materials that come from a renewable source, are fit for use, recyclable, biodegradable and don’t add to the burden of atmospheric carbon.

And guess what? Leather meets these requirements.

COTANCE Member associations represent 1479 tanneries producing to strict environmental standards, the leather that will extend the usable lifetime of products, providing a feeling of beauty and a sense of high quality.

Indeed, good quality leather upholstered furniture can last 10 to 25 years with appropriate care and some may even last a lifetime. This black-and-red chair shows two sides: the red side has hardly been maintained for 15 years while the black side has received appropriate care and been recoloured. After 20 years, it looks as good as new.

Built between 1654 and 1676, the baroque Skokloster Castle in Sweden gives us another example. Its shiny gilt leather hangings commissioned for the state apartments can still be admired after more than 350 years. Talk about longevity and sustainability!

The leather manufacturing sector upcycles an unavoidable residue from the food industry, to produce a beautiful versatile, durable, unique material, ideal for the circular economy. Go slow, choose leather!

Edited in February 2022 by

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Leather: a gift of nature!

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According to FAO data, there are around 1,600 million cattle, 1,150 million sheep and 1,000 million goats in the world.

The reasons for keeping animals are manifold and range from raising them for dairy and meat, to using them as a source of social prestige, assets, power or a convenient means of transport.

Livestock keeps our pastureland and its biodiversity in good shape.

Where livestock is farmed, animal welfare standards are essential and the EU Animal Welfare Policy includes the ”Five Freedoms for the Welfare of Farmed Animals”.  

Animal welfare is an ethical duty. An obligation that only has advantages; only well-groomed and healthy animals produce quality milk and, at the end of their lives, a tasty meat. Moreover, only well treated animals enjoy a healthy hide or skin, which tanners can then process into beautiful leather.

Conversely, a lack of or poor animal welfare has only adverse consequences. There is, of course, animal suffering, but also farmers enduring losses, and, at the end of the chain, a tanner who doesn’t get a quality feedstock. Animal diseases, parasitic attacks, injuries or skin allergies are all revealed when hides/skins are transformed into leather. 

Tanners can read hides and skins like in an open book. They can identify the way the animal has been treated during life and whether the slaughter and the flaying has been performed professionally. The less defects they find, the better the animals have been treated.

A good quality hide/skin yields a good quality leather. Where possible, European tanners pick and choose only the best. They invest time, resources and efforts in transparency and traceability so as to feed the information on defects back into their upstream supply chains and help continuously improve the quality through better animal welfare.

More quality leather means a more sustainable value chain; less waste, better ethics and more prosperity for everybody!

Edited in December 2021 by

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