The significance of eco-labelling of leather products for greater market access for Indian leather in the Western markets was highlighted at a recent seminar organised here jointly by Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI) and Carl-Duisberg Gesellschaft (CDG) of Germany. Dr D Chandramouli from CLRI in his presentation on eco-labelling said "consumers are looking for products which cause less damage Eco-labelling of leather gathers global momentum to the environment and are safe to use. Eco-lable provides an assurance to the consumers." He said companies around the world are restructuring and competing with internal improvements in environmental performance and are trying to improve their image through eco-labels for products and environmental management standards for the whole organisation.

Eco-label, even now, is a voluntary labelling system for consumer products, designed to help consumers to select and encourage manufacturers to make products which do least damage to the environment.

National eco-labelling systems are the most dependable and objective. However, it is an evolving concept and variations exist in meaning and scope. Various countries have formulated eco-labels and they are known by different names such as Eco-Mark in India, Blue Angel in Germany, Green Seal in US, Huan in China to name some. OKO-TEX Standard 100 is a well recognised German label for textiles. OKO-TEX 116 provides limit values for leather and leather clothing. SG, also of Germany, is specially created for testing leather products. Netherlands' Milieukeur has established criteria for footwear. They include chrome release not to exceed 120 mg/pair and emission not more than 0.33 mg/kg; the finishing agents have to be water-based, discharge of waste water must be through purification system and waste has to be recycled or dumped in a secured site.

Green Seal of USA, a non-profit environmental labelling organisation, develops standards category-wise by involving industry, environmentalists and consumer groups.

In India eco-labelling for leather is stumbling on the totally dissolved solids (TDS) issue. Tanneries in the developed countries do not face this problem as the salt-dominated treated tannery effluents are mixed with common sewerage system where in it gets diluted.

The first condition for eco-labelling of leather is compliance to the environmetnal norms like Water Act of 1974, Air Act (1981) and waste management (1986).

The other criteria are usage of recyclable or reusable or biodegradable packing materials and meeting with specific norms tests for various chemicals. Though there are two ISO-certified tanneries and more are likely to be certified, eco-labelling of Indian leather may take some more time until the TDS issue is sorted out.