The leather process requires a lot of water. In the second half of the nineteenth century, the abundance of rivers and creeks flowing from the Prealpi mountains and the Chiampo Valley’s hills was one of the factors facilitating the establishment of the tannery industry in the Arzignano area. For the last few decades, the efficiency of the Arzignano waste water treatment plant allowed the filtering and elimination of around 100% of suspended solids, nitrogen, chromium three and COD in the water used in the tannery process. Improvements in the production process allowed optimisation of water consumption. However, it also created blockages in the system because every tannery can use only the water permitted by the district water service. Today, tanneries want to focus on this important resource and one of greenLIFE’s objective is the optimisation of water consumption, through the re-use of processing baths. Its aim is a reduction by 20% in water consumption.
