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Small-scale sustainable vegetable-tanned leather in rural South Africa: a collective-efficiency approach

Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree:
Doctor of Technology: DESIGN
In the Faculty of Informatics and Design
At the Cape Peninsula University of Technology / Currently, the South African leather tanning industry is dominated by chromium tanning which has been identified as highly polluting. Vegetable tanning is considered less environmentally hazardous. Yet, there have been no plans to promote it in South Africa. Vegetable tanning process utilises vegetable matter for converting animal skins or hides into pliable material that is known as leather. South Africa has a variety of plants that produce tannins. However, the focus of this study is on the mimosa locally known as black wattle (Arcacia miernsii). Furthermore, the South African vegetable tanning sector has been left behind in terms of research and development despite the country being endowed with the Mimosa plant that is widely used in the vegetable tanning process. The country is also endowed with surplus labour which can be absorbed by the leather industry which is labour intensive.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:cput/oai:localhost:20.500.11838/1338
Date January 2014
CreatorsMunyai, Keneilwe
PublisherCape Peninsula University of Technology
Source SetsSouth African National ETD Portal
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis
Rightshttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/za/

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