Alberto Rosi and the transition towards an eco-sustainable direction in leather industry

Sustainability is a very pressing issue that needs to be addressed in order to hope in a better future. Even leather companies have been called upon to take part in the battle, with new technologies and products that limit their environmental impact as much as possible.

• Alberto Rosi, a company that has been a representative of leather since 1975, has developed a new eco-friendly article: a type of biodegradable leather. What is it and what are its properties?

We have been developing a type of biodegradable leather for the past 6 to 7 months, created in cooperation with an important chemical product company, and samples are already available. The product can already be described as environmentally friendly even during the production phase.

During the first processing stage, the leather is already compostable since its scraps can be reused, for instance as fertilizers. During the second processing stage, the leather becomes fully biodegradable, capable of being transformed from an organic to an inorganic product according to current regulations (ISO 20136: 2017; ISO 14855: 1999).

The finished article will be shortly available as split leather crust, and we are working on a light finishing, that will keep the biodegradability of the material as well as its natural look. In fact, we have already seen a fair amount of interest from our clients. We are aware of the fact that the entry of this material in the market will be gradual but necessary.

There are many advantages to this innovative product, such as the absence of heavy metals in the wastewater, the minimal consumption of water in the production process, and the biodegradable and eco-sustainable properties of the entire waste cycle.

• Alberto Rosi has proven the transition towards an eco-sustainable direction, supporting the cause of #realleather. What is this all about?

Real leather is a slogan initially born as anti-thesis to the eco-leather term, and more generally to all those materials that are deceptively promoted by associating them to the real leather, but with whom they have nothing in common.

This cause is supported many figures of the leather industry, such as producers, retailers, and category associations. The fundamental idea is that real leather is always, and without a doubt, the natural and eco-sustainable product par excellence by its very nature as opposed to the various alternative products to leather that are now presented as “ecological” but which, very often, due to their nature or their production processes, have a much greater impact on the environment than real leather.

Moreover, in the case of bovine, ovine and goat leather, it is possible to re-use and reprocess the waste that would otherwise be thrown away. If the leather is treated with low environmental impact procedures during the second re-use phase, (following recent trends), it becomes an eco-sustainable material.