World leader in the production and marketing of tannins and plant extracts, Silvateam is an Italian company headquartered in San Michele Mondovì near Cuneo. The company has been inspired by nature since its foundation in 1854, when the first factory for the extraction of tannin started operations in the Piedmont valleys, naturally rich in streams and chestnut woods.
Today Silvateam is internationally recognized as a pioneer in the field of Bio-circular economy thanks to Ecotan, a completely sustainable and cutting-edge technology that allows hides to be tanned without the use of any metals, chrome, triazine and other harmful substances. The results are high performing leathers with characteristics similar to the ones tanned with chrome salts, which however can be fully recycled as fertilizers at the end of their useful life.
Alessandra Taccon, Ecotan Project Director, provides us with a detailed insight into Silvateam’s corporate vision.
Firstly, how important is sustainability in general for the leather industry?
“In an age of depletion of natural resources and excessive use of hazardous chemicals, which in the past decades generated various forms of pollution, the leather industry is currently under pressure to adopt tanning technologies that exhibit a low environmental and human impact. Sustainability is life or death for this sector. Like it or not, in the past a bad picture of the industry was formed that must be completely reversed by working hard on communication. But also the tanning fundamentals must change with a deep rethinking of the basic practices and the adoption of green chemistry principles. Nowadays, consumers rank sustainability as a main priority when choosing their preferred leather goods and stand only with brands and producers who commit to nature through facts”.
And how well is this industry progressing in terms of sustainable goals?
“Environmental awareness, at least, is growing across the entire supply chain and we utterly felt this change of attitude during the last Lineapelle shows in Milan and, more recently, in New York, for instance, when many visitors came up with questions about the sustainability degree of leather. In practice, we see more tanneries using plant-based formulations, such as Ecotan made with tannins and sustainable biopolymers, to replace traditional chemicals. We also perceive more attention to the carbon footprint of products and their sustainability metrics. The debate about ‘leather second-life’ has just started, however we are convinced that, by quickly developing a leather recycling culture, we will secure the future of this unique, genuine, premium material which evokes unquestionable authenticity”.
What is driving this agenda? Regulators/marketing/customer demands?
“The urgency comes from fashion and design brands who are facing the challenges posed by Z-Gens, a generation of consumers that think green as a priority and beyond all criteria. Brands are now putting a lot of effort into making their eco-friendly policies come true and look ahead to building their credentials around a new, natural and metal-free approach to leather making. Regulators, clearly enough, are helping these discussions move forward while redesigning main standards, such as the MRSL list and the restrictions on bisphenols, as well as developing new ones, such as the bio-based content product testing”.
In terms of the sustainability agenda, where does the development of more eco-friendly chemicals for the tanning process rank among other priorities?
“In our opinion this is becoming a top priority. There is a sense of urgency behind the quest for harmless and healthy products used in tanning, which embodies a growing overall expectation of safety and health protection. Remember that most problems in the past were due to the chemicals used in the process. Replacing these materials is paramount to avoid future negative consequences”.
What part do plant-based products play in pushing forward the industry’s sustainable agenda?
“Clearly an important one. Plant-based products trigger a double effect: they come from renewable sources (chestnut, quebracho, tara and gallnut tannins) and do good to human beings and the planet. These plant-based ingredients are absolutely safe, harmless and suitable for human skin contact. That’s the way to avoid public concerns about traditional chemicals and create a new friendly image for leather, adding value to its natural origin. Moreover, plant-based tannage, like Ecotan, allows for recycling, which is a game changer for the leather industry in terms of sustainability”.
What are the advantages of plant-based products used in the Ecotan process? How well do they perform compared to traditional chemicals?
“When we devised Ecotan, we raised the bar to match the criteria of best-in-class existing technologies, among others chrome tanning, and took the challenge further ahead to the next step. The idea was to obtain a nature-inspired, tannins-based technology which could replicate in a natural manner the performances of chrome-tanned leather in terms of resistance, softness and durability. The outcome is impressive, you can use the Ecotan system in a chrome tannery and obtain articles that compare directly with or even outperform chrome-based leathers. This achievement was possible thanks to a perfect combination of natural tannins, such as chestnut, quebracho, tara and gallnut. We can quote the opinion of many of our partners, who used to be chrome-only tanneries and are enthusiastic about the new opportunities and the results obtained. To wrap up, the Ecotan bio-circular technology is now finetuned to endow leather with the unique look & feel and suppleness required by the fashion, footwear, design and automotive industries”.
Why is it important to have chrome-free tanning alternatives? What problems are caused by chrome?
“Simply because leathers tanned with tannins start off with nature and return back to nature. Ecotan adopts a green, human-friendly chemistry that does not pose the critical issues of traditional, fossil-based chemical formulations, which usually have also a more complex post-production management. Chrome can surely be well managed, but unfortunately it not always is. And the very few times it isn’t, are enough to generate bad resonance for the industry. Moreover, our green way of formulating tanning recipes works perfectly well upon contact with human skin, thereby excluding those sensitizing effects potentially deriving from chemicals. And last but not the least, bio-circularity is the key of this ‘next generation’ leather which can easily be recycled at the end of life, transforming an exhausted, waste material into a nitrogen-rich, valuable ingredient for another supply chain , related to the production of fertilizers for organic agriculture”.
What is Silvateam doing to develop new plant-based products that can be used in the leather industry?
“Our teams continuously research internally and closely work with prestigious research centres to develop innovations inspired by nature. Presently, for instance, we are leading a large team of partners across an EU Life – I’m Tan project trying to break down natural molecules to enhance the beneficial effects of tannins, both in terms of leather performance and to continue improving the process sustainability. Additionally, we are launching a new generation of bisphenol-free tanning agents to meet the challenge of some international fashion brands that look into the future having safety and health as their utmost concern”.
What kind of innovation will we see in the future?
“Bio-circular thinking, bio-circular product designing and recycling at 360° will be the path to follow. Just a couple of years back, for instance, few people grabbed the meaning of the word bio-circular. Now the majority of our industry’s stakeholders proudly speak this language and look at attaining their next goals”.
Alessandra Taccon, Ecotan Leather Project Director