Avfall av läder, skinn och päls - en icke-fråga : En studie av det nationella stödets strävan att uppnå giftfria kretslopp inom kommunal avfallshantering

Sammanfattning: The title of this study is Leather, skin, fur – a non-issue. A study of the endeavor in national support to municipal waste management to obtain toxic-free material cycles. The aim is to investigate the relation between municipal solid waste of leather, skin & fur on the one hand and a toxic-free circular economy on the other by studying perceptions among authorities and national agents giving support to municipal waste management and waste planning. The study focuses on the incineration of Chromium Tanned Leather Solid Waste (CTLSW). The research questions are: What are the perceptions of the relation between waste of leather, skin & fur and toxic-free material cycles within national support to municipal waste management & waste planning ? How does the above question relate to the management and planning of textile waste?   The main conclusions are that although no concern is expressed concerning toxic leakages from the incineration, the management of leather waste seems to be a non-issue at the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and Waste Sweden. Further investigations would be needed to judge whether chromium (trivalent and hexavalent) from the waste incineration is polluting the environment and if the amount of hexavalent chromium could be reduced or contained by using another method of thermal treatment. Further there seems to be a discrepancy between waste management and waste planning where leather, skin & fur are collected as textile at the recycling stations whereas it is excluded from the definition of textile in waste planning. To enable the creation of toxic-free material cycles the knowledge of leather, skin & fur would need to be enhanced in society, for example by authorities cooperating in educating the public and by making room for these materials in academic studies in Sweden by incorporating the materials into Textile Science, Craft or by creating a new discipline including material innovations in the field of « syntetic leather ».