Characterization of Model Tannery Solid wastes and their Assessment

Environmental pollution becomes a serious issue in most parts of the world including Ethiopia. Most organizations in Ethiopia give less attention for waste management systems. Leather industries are among these organizations that have problems in waste management systems. It is common to see piling of illegally dumped wastes around rivers and other open spaces. Burning of solid waste is also common event in many areas. There is lack of sanitary land fill to dispose solid wastes. There is no sorting of the solid wastes based on their properties at model tannery. Mixed solid wastes are disposed at open dumping site. After the model tannery has started practicing Kaizen, there are improvements in chemical and waste management systems. As a training and research center, the model tannery has to implement cleaner production systems such as source reduction, green fleshing and other technologies to manage solid wastes in environmentally friendly manner. Since the model tannery at Leather Industry Development Institute(LIDI) provides support to other Ethiopian leather industries, it has to be good model in waste management systems and scale up good experiences to other leather industries.