Throughout the world, tanneries are recognized as high-level
waste-generating industries. The leather processing that takes
place in the tanneries involves a series of chemical treatments and
mechanical operations for attaining the prescribed characteristics.
During leather processing, at least 300 kg of chemicals are added to
a ton of hides (Verheijen et al., 1996), whereby only 15% of the
chemicals are retained by the finished leather, while the remaining
85% enter into waste streams (Buljan et al., 1997). Suthanthararajan
et al. (2004) reported that about 30e40m3wastewater is generated
for every ton of hide/skin processed