When people surrounding the Tannery Industrial Estate’s in Savar are facing the horrible odor spread from the solid tannery waste, an Italian company has expressed interest to invest in recycling the same into biogas and fertilizer. The company – Ilsa SPA – has been producing and marketing recycled solid and liquid products in different countries. The Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation has forwarded a proposal to the Ministry of Industries, along with a draft memorandum of understanding for conducting a feasibility study, say officials. As per an initial discussion, the company would produce fertilizer from the solid waste and sell those to the European market. “We are now preparing to sign an MoU and will soon conduct a feasibility study,” said chairman of the BSCIC after a meeting with the Italian Ambassador to Bangladesh on Sunday.
It is learnt that the BSCIC is interested to sign the MoU as soon as the ministry gives approval. “We hope to implement this initiative within a year. We are optimistic,” said the top BCIC official. Meanwhile, an official of the Resources Regeneration Bangladesh, which is working as a local partner of the Italian company, said that they will take the whole solid waste to their factory to be built at Kaliakoir in Gazipur on about 13 acres of land. The biogas and the fertilizer to be produced will be exported but representatives of the Italian venture have stressed the need for ensuring uninterrupted supply of solid waste to the plant when it will come into operation.
Currently, some 50 tonnes of solid waste, such as fleshings, trimmings, and shavings, are being generated every day from 132 out of the 155 tanneries in operation. However, during the Eid-ul-Azha, the amount goes up to 150 tonnes a day, according to the BSCIC. In the absence of dumping yards, all of the waste is being stored in a nearby vacant space under the open sky, polluting the environment of Hemayetpur. The government had shifted the tanneries from the capital’s Hazaribagh to Savar in 2017 aiming to make the leather sector more environmentally-friendly. But the tannery estate still lacks proper solid waste management and effluent treatment. Untreated industrial wastes and effluents keep polluting River Dhaleshwari as the CETP at the estate cannot fully function yet. We want to say recycling of tannery waste would be profitable both financially and environmentally.
