Tailoring the tanning industry

11 Ação demosntração
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The BioShoes4All project is transforming the Portuguese footwear industry into a benchmark in the development of sustainable solutions. A new generation of products is coming to life and bearing fruit, especially in the tanning industry. After two years, the results are visible and have been presented in a demonstration action in Alcanena.

Maria José Ferreira explains that “a lot of work has been done to identify waste, agri-food and agri-industrial surpluses, which exist in large quantities and have been studied to understand how we can valorise them in footwear materials”. The BioShoes4All project coordinator cited examples of “surplus chestnut shells, coffee grounds, pine wood and olive leaves, among many others”.

“The tanning industry is very close to tailoring”. The provocation came from Susana Ferreira, from the Boaventura Tannery, one of the companies visited during the action demonstration. “Customers today are so demanding that they want something made to measure, according to their rules and requirements. That’s why we have to adapt to what they want. We have to improve our efficiency, get all the certifications and invest in new products”, she explains. 

Over two years, the project produced 24 types of organic leather, 26 types of organic fibre and 22 new footwear products. All these solutions have a reduced environmental footprint, are made from extra-lightweight leather and use innovative tanning processes. 

“The BioShoes4All project is first and foremost an endorsement of leather as an organic material. Leather is a natural material; it comes from an animal. It’s not a material that needs to be extracted, it’s a material that renews itself”, explains Gonçalo Santos. The APIC Secretary General explains that “projects such as BioShoes4All reaffirm leather’s credentials and present proposals for combining it with other materials, which further enhances the sustainable characteristics of leather per se”.

The demonstration action took place at the Technological Centre for the Tanning Industry (CTIC), in Alcanena, and included a round table of specialists from the sector. João Carvalho, Trends Specialist, Gonçalo Santos from APIC and Manuel Dias from Dias Ruivo Tanning, discussed under the motto ‘The skin we inhabit’, highlighting the main challenges facing the sector.

“The future will only be interesting, and we can only innovate if we control all the parameters that enter society. And, if possible, with a reduced range of materials on the table”, explains Manuel Dias. On the other hand, João Carvalho believes that this is the ideal time to promote all the lessons learned from leather. “I’d like us all to take this opportunity to spread the word. Take advantage of this ecological revolution we’re experiencing. Many young people are against plastic, for example”.

The project is based on five pillars: biomaterials, ecological footwear, circular economy, advanced production technologies, training and production.

Within the circular economy pillar, 14 advanced production technologies have been developed. Susana Ferreira explains that, in the case of Boaventura, “we are an industry that uses a lot of water and a lot of chemical products. Therefore, the brands require strict monitoring in these areas. We have all the necessary certifications; we pay a lot of attention to the requirements, and we participate in any project that allows us to be more and more sustainable”.

These new solutions, aimed at positioning Portugal on the world map, involve 70 partners, including companies, technology centres and universities. So far, 121 results have been achieved. In the ecological footwear pillar, 29 new products, 4 platforms and 1 pilot line have been achieved.

“About two years ago, we started with a process that took 10 to 12 days, with 10 to 15 passages, to dye a piece of leather. Today, we can do the same process in just one pass and one day”, says César Rosa of Curtumes Ibéria, the second company visited as part of this demonstration action. “In addition, we use renewable energy (solar panels) to power this machine”.

Finally, for the fourth pillar, advanced production technologies, 10 results on footwear recycling and industrial symbiosis were presented. Since the start of the communication campaign, the BioShoes4All project has reached a total of 44 million people digitally. A circular project… transversal throughout the chain, which promises to position Portugal in the world with a 360-degree sustainable industry.