ECCO Leather: Revolutionary Water Saving Tanning Technology

For 10,000 years, it was always believed that large amounts of water were needed in tanning leather however, ECCO Leather’s new DriTan™ technology breaks this paradigm and is set to revolutionise the entire leather industry.

DriTan™ by ECCO Leather uses the moisture already present in the hides. The result is indistinguishable from traditionally tanned leather in terms of quality, characteristics, stability and lead-time. As well as saving huge amounts of water, the technology considerably decreases the discharge of waste water and the use of chemicals. At its tannery in the Netherlands alone, ECCO Leather will eliminate 600 tons of sludge per year, translating into 40 truckloads of sludge deposited in landfills per year.

“This process only involves what you already have at hand,” explains Head of Applied Research at ECCO, Thomas Gøgsig. “You don’t have to invest in new equipment. You don’t have to look for new exotic chemicals. You just use what is already available at the tannery, only in a different way.” 

ECCO Leather tans 1.25 million hides a year to supply leather goods and shoes to over 2,200 ECCO shops and more than 14,000 sales points across the globe. Also external consumers, including some of the world’s iconic luxury brands, source materials from ECCO Leather. With DriTan™, ECCO Leather at its tannery in the Netherlands saves 20 litres of water per hide, equal to 25 million litres of water annually - enough water to keep more than 9,000 people hydrated for a whole year according to WHO figures.

There would be monumental savings if DriTan™ by ECCO Leather was to be applied to tanneries worldwide. The Leather Working Group estimates that the total water consumption worldwide in bovine leather making is 400 billion litres a year.

“Covering both tanning and shoemaking, ECCO is in the perfect position to make the first step in developing a more sustainable tanning process. Our starting point was the very fundamental question: How can we tan without water in a world of increasing water scarcity, and is it even possible?” said Thomas Gøgsig.

After five years of research and development, ECCO has the proof that it is possible to minimise the amount of water considerably. “It took a lot of research, investment and manpower – a strong cocktail of science, know-how and traditional craft. But the biggest challenge was in opening our eyes. Tanning is a very old and traditional industry, so people tend to forget to ask: Can it be done differently?”

ECCO Leather is at present, scaling the technology internally to their tanning operations. “We hope to find ways to share the new technology with our partners and the industry worldwide. But first, we must learn from how it unrolls in-house,” commented Thomas Gøgsig. “In fact, DriTan™ is just the first step in our ambitious scheme to make the entire leather manufacturing process waterfree.”

Source: Industry Europe

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Taxonomy

• Industrial Water Managment
• Leather
• Industrial
• Tannery