Reuse of leather waste into wood particleboards: physical–mechanical and thermal properties

Currently, the footwear industry faces a great environmental problem, since its production system generates large volumes of chrome-tanned leather scrap. Given this scenario, it seeks to promote the circular economy in this area with the aim of minimizing the final disposal of waste in landfills through proposals for the reuse of this material. This work aims to study the incorporation of leather waste from the footwear industry in the production of particleboards. Based on the obtained results, the boards with up to 20 wt% leather showed a decrease of around 15 and 30% in the MOR and MOE, respectively. On the other hand, the water swelling tests show that leather presented better dimensional stability than wood, and its incorporation reduces the thickness swelling of the panels. The water resistance of the wood/leather boards is given mainly by the average pore diameter, where the pores of the leather were 500% larger than those of the wood. Finally, according to the thermal properties leather showed better thermal stability than wood, since the mass loss at 400 °C was 55% for leather and 80% for wood. However, the incorporation of leather up to 20% did not enhance the fireproof properties of the panels. Therefore, the incorporation of low leather content to particleboards could be considered as a sustainable alternative for a residue with high environmental impact.

Graphical abstract