Real World Case

Chrome Recovery Around The World

Chromium recycling is practiced with great success, whether in shared or decentralized plants.

For example in Italy, where a large shared chromium recycling plant has been In operation for many years producing more than 21 tons of chromium a day, recovered from the collected spent floats of more than 150 tanneries in the area.

The same system has recently been put into operation in Portugal. Large and medium-sized tanneries in India, China, Colombia and Brazil are also using this system successfully.

Leather City of t he World

• Out of the total 469 tanneries in UP (recognized by U.P. pollution control board), 404 are in Kanpur itself.

• In  Kanpur, the self-proclaimed "Leather City of World" and a city of 3 million people on the banks of the river  Ganga, pollution levels were so high that, despite an industry crisis, the pollution control board sealed 49 high-polluting tanneries out of 404 in July 2009.

• In 2003 for instance, the main tannery's effluent disposal unit was dumping 22 tons of chromium laden solid waste per day in the open.

• Under Ganga Action Plan Phase-I, a chrome recovery pilot plant was installed in one of the large tanneries (i.e. Pioneer Tannery) at Jajmau, Kanpur.

The 2003 CREP Charter by MoEF

• The Ministry of Environment & Forest (MoEF) launched the Charter on “Corporate Responsibility for Environmental Protection (CREP )” in March 2003 with the purpose to go beyond the compliance of regulatory norms for pollution control.

• The Charter enlists the action points for pollution control for various categories of highly polluting industries including leather tanneries. The Task Force was constituted for monitoring the progress of implementation of CREP recommendations/ action points.

CREP - Corporate Responsibility for Environmental Protection

MoEF – Ministry of Environment and Forest

Action points under CREP for Tannery Sector