Abstract

Leather sector in Ethiopia is blessed with huge livestock resource which serves as source of raw material (hides and skin), cheap and highly disciplined workforce, cheap cost of doing business, significant international comparative advantages, investment incentives, and custom duty exemption. This industry remains a supplier of low value added, semi- processed hides and skin to the international market. leather sheet of wonderful strength (9.84±0.16 MPa) and very reasonable elongation at break (31.40%) having amenable use was prepared and the production of this value added products from waste material is a reasonable task of the time that scholars should do as it can serve as means of income besides its advantage to reduce environmental pollution specially in countries like Ethiopia which, have untapped solid waste leather resource. Key words: Solid waste, leather fiber, latex, Ethiopia.

Highlights

  • Leather sector in Ethiopia is blessed with huge livestock resource which serves as source of raw material, cheap and highly disciplined workforce, cheap cost of doing business, significant international comparative advantages, investment incentives, and custom duty exemption

  • This industry remains a supplier of low value added, semi- processed hides and skin to the international market. leather sheet of wonderful strength (9.84±0.16 MPa) and very reasonable elongation at break (31.40%) having amenable use was prepared and the production of this value added products from waste material is a reasonable task of the time that scholars should do as it can serve as means of income besides its advantage to reduce environmental pollution specially in countries like Ethiopia which, have untapped solid waste leather resource

  • The leather industry of Ethiopia obtains its raw material from local supplies of hides and skins that in turn rely on the huge livestock population which is estimated at about 90 million heads of cattle, sheep and goats (MOARD, 2007)

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Summary

INTRODUCTION

The leather industry of Ethiopia obtains its raw material from local supplies of hides and skins that in turn rely on the huge livestock population which is estimated at about 90 million heads of cattle, sheep and goats (MOARD, 2007). The study by Zulfikar (2012) at ELICO (Ethiopian Leather Industry Corporation) indicated that from the processing of 7,251 ton of cattle hide and sheep skins annually, the tannery generates a total of 4,048.96 ton of solid waste from beam house, tanning, re-tanning and finishing processes, equivalent to 55.8% of the raw hide and skin processed This shows that Ethiopia is one of the most promising leather producing countries in Africa and it is indicative from this single work that it generates significant amount of solid waste leather which is sent to the landfill. Though the resource (solid waste leather) is huge and its effect to the environment is critical, no significant work is done in Ethiopia to convert it into wealth Utilizing this waste as raw material to prepare value added product could be a novel idea as it can generate income besides serving as means of minimizing environmental pollution and thereby securing environmental sustainability. The objective of the present work is to prepare composite sheet from finished leather waste using natural rubber latex as a binder with different chemicals and evaluate its physical property

MATERIALS AND METHODS
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Conclusion

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