Italconcia and Herambiente together for Be Future: an innovative circular economy project
BBL – BioBasedLeather® the new 97% biobased leather, without petroleum derivatives, is the basis of the Be Future project that Herambiente Servizi Industriali shares with Italconcia to offer customers the transformation of production waste into high quality fertilizer, which will also be offered to Tuscan nurseries for a circularity of proximity
An innovative project for a completely green leather
High quality leather, tanned without the use of fossil energy sources and products from the petroleum industry, is not enough. From tomorrow that skin will give rise to a circular economy project, on a very large scale. The project, called Be Future, is by Italconcia, one of the Italian leaders in the tanning of high-end leathers, which, thanks to the collaboration with Herambiente Servizi Industriali (Hera Group), moves forward the frontier of sustainability in the tanning sector, anticipating what is expected by European legislation.
The collection of waste from all Italconcia customers and the start of recovery
Italconcia has developed an innovative tanning process which, among other things, substantially excludes the use of fossil-based substances and substances that are harmful or harmful to humans and the environment in processing. The leather, under the BBL – BioBasedLeather® brand, is used by some of the most prestigious manufacturers of luxury footwear and leather goods in the world. Thanks to the agreement with Herambiente, all industrial BBL leather waste will be collected and sent for recovery for the production of high quality fertilizer. This not only at the Italconcia plant in Castelfranco di Sotto, but also at all Italconcia customers in Italy.
Integration with the value chains of high-end producers
The truly innovative aspect of the collaboration is precisely the integration of recovery into customer value chains. In fact, Herambiente will engineer the separate collection of BBL – BioBasedLeather® leather in the customers’ plants (as well as Italconcia), and will take care of its transport to the Castelfranco di Sotto and Torbelvicino platforms (at the headquarters of the subsidiary Vallortigara Servizi Ambientali ), to carry out product checks and to deliver the waste to selected fertilizer producers.
Fertilizer for nurseries: almost zero kilometer recovery
A little like bags, jackets and shoes, even the fertilizer produced by BBL leather – BioBasedLeather®, will be of the highest quality. In addition to being used in agriculture, it will also be destined for Tuscan nurseries, completely closing the circle of recovery, within a few kilometers.
Martini, Italconcia: “project part of a broader commitment to sustainability”
Be Future is part of Italconcia’s broader commitment to sustainability
explains Andrea Martini, General Manager of Italconcia.
It is a process that is the result of regulatory changes, but also of the profound awareness of the environmental challenges we face. For this reason, in conceiving the BBL – BioBasedLeather® leather, we immediately imagined also integrating its recovery, to offer customers a doubly sustainable product: zero fossil substances and which transforms the raw material into secondary raw material, generating value in a process of circular economy
Valentini, Herambiente Servizi Industriali: “a partnership in line with our strategy: to be the engine of the circular economy”
Herambiente enthusiastically joined the project proposed by Italconcia, because our guiding value in waste management is to maximize the recovery of resources
explains Gianluca Valentini, General Manager of Herambiente Servizi Industriali.
In this case, the environmental value of the collaboration is also combined with the contribution for a made in Italy, not only synonymous with quality and beauty, but also with sustainability.