Its implementation would generate annual savings of 300 million euros for the Italian tanning sector, and around twice that for the European industry. Companies would use 10% less chemicals and 30% less energy, while waste water would contain 40% less ammonium and nitrogen and 80% less sulphide. These are the numbers, all in the name of sustainability, from European project Podeba, voted “Best LIFE Environment Project 2015” in Brussels. Coordinated between 2012 and 2014 (with 1.2 million of European funding to the Life Program) by the ENEA Faenza Technical Unit on Material Technologies and international partners, the project evaluates a possible solution to replace, in the hide maceration and softening process, the traditional synthetic formulates with poultry manure (chicken excrement), rich in proteolytic enzymes. The plan includes a treatment that reduces the smell of the soaking element by 80%.
Poultry manure instead of chemical: green tanning project wins European award
