The Indian Leather Industry - Essay Example

Replacing Leather Introduction The Indian leather industry occupies a place of prominence in the Indian economy for its massive potential for employment, growth and exports. Since 1973, the government has transformed itself and the laws of its lands to nurture the leather industry. So much emphasis were put into planned development, optimum utilisation of available raw materials to maximise the returns, particularly from exports. The Economics Indian Mirror in their article “The Indian Leather Industry” reported that the growth has been phenomenal, to say the least. From Rs.320 million in the year 1965-66 to Rs.69558 million in 1996-97. It also brings pride to the nation. The Indian leather industry today has been recognized for its quality and is now among the top seven foreign exchange earners of the country. From being a mere exporter of raw materials in the sixties, it is now a legitimate and dollar earning industry. The sector accounts for 2.5 per cent of the global leather-related trade of Rs. 387,200 crores. An estimated 15 per cent of total purchase of leading global brands in footwear, garments, leather goods & accessories, in Europe, and 10 percent of global supply is outsourced from India (Damodaran & Mansingh). The leather industry employs about 2.5 million people2 and has annual turn over of Rs. 25,000 crores (Damodaran & Mansingh). Engrained in the Culture The industry also goes beyond economics, it has become a part of Indian identity. Many who work in the industry, entrepreneurs and workers, feel that making leather is beyond making a living. It serves as the connection to their past and the only thing they have known to do. Thus, the organizational structure of leather companies are usually set up in a way that incorporates Indian family tradition as well as an attempt to a modern approach primarily due to the influence of the West who has been India’s biggest leather consumer. Environment Damage One may find over half of India's leather industry around the Ganga river basin. Through Utter Pradesh and West Bengal, treatment plants transform raw hide into materials to be used by Hollywood superstars and international socialites. It is this interest of designers and rich and famous that made this industry a major player in the country's economy. In West Bengal alone, there are 600 tanneries employing and 20,000 units manufacturing leather products. They employ 200,000 people (Brown, “Told To Clean Up”). There is the negative side though. It does more damage to the environment, one that does not compensate for what India gains financially. For one, they used different chemical processes that would preserve the leather. They soak and line the hide, remove the grease ad pickling the hide, and other processes that use salt as the primary ingredients. Brown further reported that about 3000 tonnes of salt are used to preserve 5000 tonnes of raw hide. The problem is 90% of this salt goes into the river and groundwater systems causing pollution and contamination. They also use other products like formaldehyde, coal-tar derivatives, and various oils, dyes, and finishes—some of them cyanide-based. Most leather is chrome-tanned which has long been declared hazardous by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) also reported that tanneries produce pollutants like protein, hair, salt, lime sludge, sulfides, acids, 2,000 pounds of solid waste including flesh and waste nearly 15,000 gallons of water a for every ton of hides that it processes. All these either say on the environment to damage the soil, water, and health of humans around or it goes straight to landfills together with the 800,000 tons of chrome shavings annually. In PETA’s article titled “Wool, Fur, Leather: Hazardous to the Environment” they said, “Groundwater near tanneries has been found with highly elevated levels of a variety of toxic substances. The Regis Tanning Co., Inc., operated a tanning facility from the early 1950s until 1972. But more than 20 years after it closed down, groundwater samples collected in the area revealed that arsenic, chromium, lead, and zinc were all still present—likely because of wastes disposed of on the property—while samples taken from nearby Lamprey River and its wetlands indicated the presence of cyanide, chromium, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).” How Leather Production Harms People The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that there is high incidence of leukaemia on communities living around tanneries and may be due to the arsenic, a chemical also used in processing leather. The National Disease Cluster’s Alliance also found out that tannery workers in Sweden and Italy have higher cancer risks, between 20% and 50% above [those] expected which pushed many European and U.S. countries to discontinue leather manufacturing and processing. Bangladesh Tanners Association President M. Harun Chowdhury said, “Most of the European countries and USA are discontinuing leather processing, as [the] leather industry is an environmentally hazardous one.” That move is being seen as a threat to many other tanning industries for highlighting the risk that tanning put on people’s health. There are 3.5 million people in Ranipet, India that were allegedly harmed in a tanning industry according to The Blacksmith Institute in their annual “Dirty Thirty” list of the world’s most contaminated sites. They also credited the leather industry with other diseases like skin ulcerations when they came into contact with the water supply. Above all, the process of turning skin into leather is cruel to animals. They don’t practice humane way of killing animals which puts them in the crosshair of organizations like PETA and countries who are concerned about the welfare of animals. The Problem There two major concerns, two elements that are deeply engrained in this problem, economy and environment. The damage to the environment is apparent and it is certain how continuing with how things are done now will eventually leave the country with no natural resources and half the Globe opposing their economy. However, there are 2.5 million people that depend on it. Shutting down this industry in favour of the environment will only compound the problem. The Options There are two options that may be explored: Create an industry that will nurture the environment and create jobs in place of the ones that will be lost. Building India’s recycling industry may be able fill in the economic void that the leather industry will leave Put the Indian leather industry to new regulations that will institutionalize stricter standards on the process of manufacturing leather. One such move is the decision of environment minister Jairam Ramesh to put the leather industry on a two year watch programme. Supporting The Indian Recycling Industry Understanding the Concept Recycling is the recovery of useful materials, such as paper, glass, plastic, and metals, from the trash to use to make new products, reducing the amount of new raw materials needed (EPA). This concept includes many forms such as Waste-to-energy (WtE) or energy-from-waste (EfW). It is the process of using waste to produce energy via heat from the incineration. It can produce electricity directly through combustion, or produce a combustible fuel commodities (Rosenthal, “Europe Finds”). Composting, on the other hand, involves collecting organic waste, such as food scraps and yard trimmings, and burying it underground for it to be used as natural fertilizer (EPA). Upcycling is the process of converting waste materials into products of greater value (Kay 2011). How Much Does India Waste The hazardous waste generated in the country per annum is estimated to be around 4.4 million tones while as per the estimates of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development(OECD) derived from correlating hazardous waste generation and economic activities. Five million tones of hazardous waste are being produced in the country annually. This estimate of around 4.4 million MTA is based on the 18 categories of wastes which appeared in the HWM Rules first published in 1989.Out of this, 38.3% is recyclable, 4.3% is incinerable and the remaining 57.4% is disposable in secured landfills. Twelve States of the country (Maharashtra,Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Orissa,Madhya Pradesh,Assam, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Rajasthan) account for 97% of total hazardous waste generation. Maharashtra,Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu further stated that because of the leather industry, India may be credited with the following: Air pollution in Indian cities is highest amongst the world Over seventy percent of the country's surface water sources are polluted and, in large stretches of major rivers, water is not even fit for bathing India has among the lowest per capita availability of forests in the world, which is 0.11 ha as compared to 0.50 ha in Thailand and 0.8 ha in China The security of Indian fragile ecosystem, therefore, warrants sustainable consumption of natural resources and protection from environmental degradation. How Recycling Will Save India Supporting recycling companies by giving them tax credits, tax cuts, and incentives will allow them to reinvest the money to push forward more recycling efforts that will create more jobs and further help renew the environment. Jobs and Businesses In 2001, The U.S. Environment Protection Agency (EPA) commissioned the U.S. Recycling Economic Information to study the economic and environmental effects of recycling. They determined that determined that the recycling, composting and energy recovery industry included more than 56,000 establishment employing 1.1 people with an annual payroll of $37 billion with a gross of $236 billion in annual sales (REI 1). Doubling the national recycling rate could create over 1 million new green jobs (GAIA). If India can duplicate the support, given its larger population, booming economy and willingness of government to help, the jobs that will be lost in the leather industry will be replaced. India’s Green Revolution rescued the nation from famines, but left over 11.6 million hectares of low-productivity, nutrient-depleted soils ruined by unbalanced and excessive use of synthetic fertilisers and lack of organic manure or micronutrients. City compost can fill this need and solve both the problems of barren land and organic nutrient shortages, estimated at six million tons a year. India’s 35 largest cities alone can provide 5.7 million tonnes a year of organic manure if their biodegradable waste is composted and returned to the soil. Integrated plant nutrient management, using city compost along with synthetic fertilisers, can generate enormous national savings as well as cleaning urban India. There is scarcely any other national programme which can bring such huge benefits to both the environment and the economy (Gupta, “Rethinking”).   Resources to Create More Jobs The benefits go beyond the economics. It could help renew resources that will, in turn, save 3 to 5 times the energy generated by waste-to-energy plants, even without counting the wasted energy in the burned materials (GAIA), recycling a ton of paper saves 17 trees and saves the energy equivalent of 185 gallons of gasoline , recycling 7 million tons of metals eliminates 25 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent taking 4.5 million cars off the road for one year (GRR). If the government supports the recycling industry, it will help: in recovering resources that might otherwise be disposed of as a waste and convert it to something more valuable generate electricity and heat from waste, a renewable source of energy; and reduce carbon emissions by offsetting the need for energy from fossil sources and reduction of methane generation from landfills. India’s first waste-to-energy plant, touted as an answer to the waste and electricity, The Timarpur Okhla Municipal Solid Waste Management plant, is a private-public partnership project of the Jindal ITF Ecoplis and Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). It may be able to provide 16 MW of electricity, enough to serve six lakh homes, from about 2,050 tonnes of solid waste, which is 25 percent of the waste generated in Delhi every day (Zafar June 2011). Other estimates go to as far as saying that 1 MW is enough to support 1,000 homes (Ballemare, “What is a Megawatt?”). Recycling through municipal Waste to Enerty (WtE)  efforts already converts a significant amount of waste to energy, about 18%  but still not enough to supply the energy demand of the U.S. If we increase recycling and WtE support, Municipal waste may not be the only potential source of waste. A 2005 report from Oak Ridge National Lab estimates that we could get: 40 million tons annually from manure; 60 million tons of woody biomass annually from forest thinning for fuel load reduction; and 36 million tons of woody biomass annually from a combination of wastes from construction, demolition, packaging, tree thinning, and unused forest products residue (Haigh, “Ask The Conversationist”). Re-regulation the Leather Industry The other option is to create a policy to regulate the leather industry at the National Level. More than 500 tanneries in three districts of India were charged with polluting some 16,000 hectares of agricultural land and contributing to drought conditions . Not that no attempts have been made. The ministry of environment and forests has recently legislated the Municipal Waste Management and Handling Rules 2000 which is supposed to provide strict guidance on how the leather industry is supposed to operate with utmost care to the environment and the health of the people that work in the industry. However, there is as much failure in the policy as much as in the implementation. First, it does not promote recycling which would provide more jobs, create a new industry and help the environment. There is also no program set up that will encourage or require the public participation in the whole effort. Given the poverty rate in India, people’s primary concern is to have a source of living and if that means working in the tanning industry, they would take it. Other recent policy documents include the Ministry of Urban Affairs’ Shukla Committee’s Report (January 2000) the Supreme Court appointed Burman Committee’s Report (March 1999), and the Report of the National Plastic Waste Management Task Force (August 1997). All of these policies combined still fall short in the being able do a comprehensive assessment of the environmental and economic impact of the leather industry. Developing countries like the U.S. have gone far beyond making legislations, they are, in fact putting programs that will support this industry which includes tax cuts and tax breaks. India has none of those set up and no bills are in place that would push forward such a cause. Conclusion The economic and environmental benefits are astounding. The jobs it will create, the impact on Indian economy, and the amount of environmental recovery is enough for the government to put in place legislations that will push forward recycling. Recycling helps businesses, other organizations and communities avoid disposal costs associated with landfills and incinerators. The industry that U.S. has created around recycling provide millions of jobs to its people. There is no reason India will be unable to duplicate with more people willing and able to do hardwork involved in recycling materials. Recycling also stimulates the development of green technology. Waste can be used to create other products, old clothes to bags, tires to furniture, plastic to household equipment. There is also the fact that you will never really run out of supply because India and the world will never run out of waste. It is not only the good and product they can create out of waste, it is also the energy that waste can produce that could pull down India’s expenses on energy. There is no silver bullet for solving the problem of producing renewable energy, but recycling can be an important part of the solution. References Bellemare, Bob. 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