Nonconventional utilization of rejected hides and skins

The leather industry primarily relies on hides and skins as essential raw materials. This study investigated the commercial utilization potential of rejected hides and skins through a structured field survey and glue production experiment in Morogoro Municipality, Tanzania. A cross-sectional survey was conducted at the Morogoro abattoir and tannery to quantify rejection rates and identify underlying causes. Glue was traditionally produced by boiling rejected hides and skins to extract collagen. Physical damage was the major cause of poor hide and skin quality. At the Morogoro abattoir, 41% of hides and 38% of skins were classified as rejects from a total annual collection of 43,800 hides and 5,650 skins, respectively. At the Morogoro tannery, 35% of the hides were classified as rejects from an annual collection of 360,000 hides, while 26.5% of the skins were classified as rejects from an annual collection of 204,000. The glue produced demonstrated an adhesive tensile strength of 24.0 ± 0.4 MPa on wood, which falls within the lower range of some commercial synthetic adhesives such as polyvinyl acetate (PVA). These findings show that utilizing rejected hides and skins can reduce waste, enhance value addition, and create income opportunities within the livestock by-product sector.