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Ecowhite®

A natural tanning process

 

CGRD ushered in the new milennium with the creation of an innovative line of chemicals to enhance sustainbility: ECOWHITE®

Sustainability is a major challenge in our industry
With our partners and customers we spark innovation to help to create a better future

The line Ecowhite® is:

  • Probiotics for soaking, wetting and degreasing
  • Soft acid for pikel without salt
  • A line of different kind of tanning agents for wet white tanning
  • Bio-polymers for retanning without formaldehyde
  • Chemicals from recovering of natural waste
Beamhouse accounts for nearly 70% of wastewater in leather production. So, the benefit in terms of sustainability is guaranteed when replacing the traditional synthesized chemicals associated with petroleum with a 100% NATURAL PRODUCT.
Ecowet is probiotics:
100% natural product
  • Use of only one product for soaking: no hazardous substances, no biocides, no surfactants or amines... very safe for operators
  • Easily reaction
  • Up to 50% reduction in C.O.D
  • Shorter processing time
  • Up to 30% reduction in water consumption
  • Totally avoid the use of salt in the pickling process, significantly reducing the environmental impact
  • Total absence of metals in the tanning and retanning process (metal free leather)
  • Shrinkage Temperature (Tg) between 75”C and 80”C
Other aspects and advantages
  1. Easy and versatile production process of a wide range of leathers and articles 100% biodegradable
  2. Easy storage of crust leather
  3. Good metric yield weight/surface (ratio kg/m²)
  • Absence of substances causing dermatites and skin conditions. This is very important for the footwear industry, especially children’s footwear
  • Excellent environmental sustainability at the end of life
  • No release of heavy metals or other environmentally-hazardous substances that could cause pollution of atmosphere, soil, ground or water
  • These leathers will therefore be resistant to the aggression of molds, bacteria and atmospheric agents and they will not be damaged in shortly after purchase
  • Ending its life-cycle, Ecowhite® leathers have to be considered fully biodegradable, although stable for a sufficiently longperiod of time, in order to guarantee suitable durability in clothes, linings, shoe uppers, upholstery goods and automotive products
  • Furthermore, Ecowhite® leathers can be recycled, as they do not contain heavy metals or other ecologically incompatible degradation substances


Ecowhite® is a new way for produce leather from nature to nature

Specific chimical analysis on Ecowhite® leather samples were performed by accredited laboratory “Nuovi Servizi Ambientali S.r.l.” of Robassomero (TO, ltaly), in order to validate the technical and scientific assessment of the process and related products.
The content of heavy metals and free formaldehyde was analysed according to accredited methods on representative samples of Wet-white leather. Referring to the attached test reports, the results of the analysis are shown in the following tables.

TOTAL TANNING METALS ACCORDING TO STANDARD UNI10887:2000

CHEMICAL PARAMETER ANALYTICAL METHOD RESULT (mg/Kg) REQUIRED LIMIT OF STANDARDS UNI 10885 (mg/Kg)  REQUIRED LIMIT OF SG TRADEMARK (mg/Kg)
Chromium

ICP - OES
EPA 3051A
2007 + EPA
6010D 2014

 4,34 -- --
Aluminium  15,7 -- --
Zirconium Not detectable** -- --
Iron 22,6 -- --
Titanium Not detectable** -- --

TOTAL TANNING METAILS

According to standard UNI 10885 "Vegetable tanning leather -Definition, charateristics and requirements		 42.64 3000 200

OTHER METALS

CHEMICAL PARAMETER ANALYTICAL METHOD RESULT (mg/Kg) LIMIT OEKO TEX STANDARD 100 AP-PEDIOX 4 (digested simple)(mg/Kg)  REQUIRED LIMIT OF SG TRADEMARK (mg/Kg)
Nickel

ICP - OES
EPA 3051A
2007 + EPA
6010D 2014

 2,34 4 4
Lead Not detectable** 1 0,8
Manganese Not detectable** -- --
Copper 1,78 50 50
Zinc 11,7 100 100
Cadmium Not detectable** 0,1 0,1

FREE FORMALDEHYDE

CHEMICAL PARAMETER ANALYTICAL METHOD RESULT (mg/Kg) UNIC SPECIFICATION REV.11B (mg/Kg) LIMIT OEKO TEX STANDARD 100 APPENDIX 4 (digested simple) (mg/Kg)
Free formaldehyde

EPA 8315A:
1996
HPLC-UV

 Not detectable** < 20 leathers of children articles
< 75 leather of skin contact articles 		Not detectable**
Test Reports on Wet-white leather (digested leather samples) show traces of metals to be unrelevant, never intentionally used during wet process in drum. According to the most important analytical parameters, the technical assessment of the ECOWHITE® process and the composition of chemical products in use during the processing phases confirms:
  • the compliance with the most stringent leather standards
  • the eco-environmental relevance and the achievement of the principles and objectives of:
  1. Process efficiency
  2. Maximization in the use of renewable resources
  3. Save to use
  4. Eco-sustainability and compatibility during the full materiallife-cycle