COMPOSITES FROM LEATHER INDUSTRY BUFFING DUST: A REVIEW

Abstract

Leather buffing dust is a fine powder of collagen fibril waste from milling and buffing operations and constitutes an important part of solid wastes generated from chrome tanned leather production processes. It is one of the difficult tannery wastes to manage and current practice of its disposal includes its incineration and disposal in landfill. The scientific literature reports numerous studies on its utilization in composites formulations. Chrome tanned buffing dust has been used as filler for various polymeric matrices with the aim of producing leather-like composites for potential applications such as hand bags, wallets, key chain holder and purses and footwear products such as shoe soles, insole, heels etc. This paper compiles different research works done by researchers regarding composites made from leather industry buffing dust. The characteristics of composites are also presented by making use of previously published studies carried out with different polymer matrices. Reviewed studies reveal that fiber-reinforced composites utilizing buffing dust provide landfill avoidance, energy conservation, decrease depletion of virgin raw material, enable production of low cost composites with improved mechanical properties that can be used for multifunctional applications and moreover they provide solution to the environmental problems associated with the waste management of the leather industry.

Keywords

• leather industry waste
• composites
• recycling
• buffing dust