The Leather production has grown in the last years with a trend to developing
countries. Mainly Wet-Blue and Wet-White crusts are produced there, where big
amounts of leather shavings are generated. These go so far into landfills. It’s the goal of this thesis to find out, how these leather shavings can be treated for utilisation.
Therefore four composting trials have been carried out. The process parameters have been documented and the results presented. The volume reduction observed was about 50% and the product has proven to be more biological stable than the shavings. But the compost produced in the trials could not be used as a fertilizer because of its extremely low C/N ratio (4,8-7,9). Finally it can be stated that aerobe treatment of Wet-White leather wastes seems to be a good approach for waste management in tanneries, but further trials have to be made for process optimisation.
An advice for a promising trial would be to compost 5% leather shavings together with 25% beer trester and 70% straw. If there is a MBT- plant near the tannery, small amounts of shavings (5-10 %) could be co-composted with C-rich biological waste fractions. It seems to be advantageous for developing countries to compost leather shavings, because it offers a reasonable way for waste utilisation in tanneries and for supplying local farmers with low cost compost fertiliser.