All articles by Blatha
Blatha
Viva España
Andrea Guolo looks into Spain’s position and influence in Europe’s tannery stakes.
Tool time: Cotance conference in Brussels
In October, EU leather industry body Cotance hosted its final tannery healthy workplaces conference in Brussels. The event served to highlight that, while safety is a key priority for partners across the value chain, levels of understanding around how to implement due diligence are still not where they should be. Ross Davies reports.
Make shoes sustainable
The number of shoes made every year is staggering, so what becomes of the estimated 23 billion used pairs produced annually? Thierry Poncet, head of leather and sustainable development departments, and Régis Léty, sustainable development consultant at CTC, shed light on the issue.
Preferential treatment
Dirick von Behr and Sjoerd van Driesten of Smit & zoon undertake a study to examine the various methods to determine the optimised exhaustion of fatliquors to minimise ETP inflow.
Vision of the future: New York’s TOME
Première Vision New York, one of the highlights of the North American leather industry calendar, takes place on 15–16 January 2019 in Midtown Manhattan, showcasing spring/summer collections for 2020.
Don Ohsman’s view from the US
The price of US hides has sputtered along at relatively close to steady levels since our last report. Benchmark heavy…
Future facing: Lineapelle at Fieramilano
The 95th edition of Lineapelle took place in late September, at Fieramilano, in Milan. The event showcased the winter 2019–20 collections from some of the industry’s biggest names, and provided a platform to discuss innovation and the future of the leather industry.
Brazil: nuts about leather
Brazil’s CSCB Sustainability Forum is coming hot on the heels of a successful All China Leather Exhibition for the Brazilian industry. Leather International looks at the overarching themes of this year’s forum.
A longway from chrome
Speaking in June at the 7th Freiberg Leather Days conference, Florian Döppert, the head of wet-end screening at TFL Ledertechnik, used his presentation to examine the industry’s choices when it comes to retanning systems for chrome-tanned and chrome-free leather. As he tells Ross Davies, we need to think outside the box.
Under the microscope
The following is an edited excerpt from a study entitled ‘Different pre-treatments of chrome-tanned leather waste and their use in the biogas production’ by Carolina Gomes, Michael Meyer and Jens-Uwe Repke from the Research Institute of Leather and Plastic Sheeting in Freiberg, Germany.