USDA SCIENTISTS TURN HIDE-TANNING WASTE INTO HIGH-VALUE PRODUCTS
                                                               
                                           Release No. 0487.98 

                     Media Contact: Andy Solomon (202) 720-4623
                                          andy.solomon@usda.gov
                Public Contact: Doris Stanley    (301) 893-6727
                                      dstanley@asrr.arsusda.gov

USDA SCIENTISTS TURN HIDE-TANNING WASTE INTO HIGH-VALUE PRODUCTS

     WASHINGTON, Nov. 23, 1998--Using a common laundry detergent enzyme, U.S.
Department of Agriculture researchers are turning shavings from cattle hide
tanning into a high-value protein that can be used in a range of products,
such as adhesives and packaging films, Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman
announced today.  

     "This is an innovative process that puts to good use a waste product
that now must be hauled off to landfills at a price," Glickman said.  "It is a
discovery that is good for our environment and our economy."  

     From 100 pounds of cattle hides, a tanner gets only 50 pounds of leather
-- and 50 pounds of waste.  Tanners use non-toxic chromium-III sulfate in
tanning hides into leather.  Then they shave the bottom sides of chromium-
tanned hides to give them a uniform thickness.  Each year, about 60,000 metric
tons of shavings end up as waste bound for landfills.

     Agricultural Research Service chemists Maryann Taylor, Eleanor Brown and
William Marmer were able to break down the chrome shavings with alkaline
protease, an enzyme from a common laundry detergent.  The researchers' first
product was a low-value protein hydrolysate that can be used in fertilizer. 
By modifying the process, they produced a high-value grade of gelatin protein
that is ideal for making adhesives, industrial films for packaging, and
encapsulating agents for industrial and agricultural chemicals.  The higher-
grade product is equal -- and, in some cases, superior -- to commercially
produced gelatins.  The scientists have been granted two patents for their
research.

     Taylor also purified the chromium left over after the proteins were
removed and reused it as an agent in the tanning process.  The quality of
leather produced was comparable to that of commercially tanned leather.  She
even found a way to recycle the enzyme used to liberate the proteins.
     ARS, USDA's chief research agency, operates a pilot tanning plant, the
only public facility of its kind in the United States, at its Eastern Regional
Research Center in Wyndmoor, Pa.
     Scientists from Spain collaborated on part of the research.  A modified
version of the process is now being used in a tannery in the Czech Republic. 
ARS has also signed a cooperative agreement with ATO-DLO, a Dutch institution,
to develop applications for the protein products. 

     More information about the research is available on the World Wide Web
at:
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/nov98/tan1198.htm

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NOTE TO EDITORS: For details, contact the scientists at the Hides, Lipids, and
Wool Research Unit, Eastern Regional Research Center, Agricultural Research
Service, USDA, Wyndmoor, Pa. William N. Marmer, phone (215) 233-6585,
wmarmer@arserrc.gov; Maryann M. Taylor, phone (215) 233-6435,
mtaylor@arserrc.gov; Eleanor M. Brown, phone (215) 233-6481,
ebrown@arserrc.gov.