Turning leather waste into textile coatings

CITEVE, the Technological Centre for the Textile and Clothing Industry of Portugal, has developed a process for turning natural leather waste and by-products from the tanning industry into new textile coatings. The process chemically transforms leather trimmings into a solution which can be used to make a coating for car interiors.

The development earned CITEVE and its Portuguese partners—ERT Têxtil, CeNTI and CTIC—the New Approaches on Sustainability and Circular Economy Innovation Award at the recent Techtextil exhibition in Frankfurt, Germany, in June. 

ERT Têxtil, a manufacturer of technical textiles and other flexible materials for automotive interiors, is already commercially marketing the new textile coatings under the brand name Phoenix.