Last month, the Leather and Hide Council of America (LHCA) released shocking figures about the number of hides that go to waste every single day despite the huge demand for this valuable resource. In the U.S. alone, during 2020, out of the 33 million of processed cattle, almost five million hides were destroyed (incinerated or sent to landfills). The situation on the global level is even more depressing.
If we do a ‘back-of-an-envelope’ calculation of the impact of this unfortunate trend, the implications are staggering. Five million hides (or approximately 15% of all processed hides) were wasted in the U.S. last year. Instead of being turned into highly demanded leather products and by-products, these unused hides created more than 120,000 tonnes of unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions.
If we assume that there are approximately 220 working days per year and the average value of a branded hide is US$25, then the industry as a whole lost almost US$570,000 per day of forgone profit (US$125 million per annum) purely due to the lack of information about the existence of HIDEXE.
Assuming that the hides were legally disposed at approximately US$5 per hide, the situation is even worse since the cattle processors had to pay more than US$110,000 per day to landfill. HIDEXE’s volumetric fees (approximately 1% of the sales value or US$220 per container) would have amounted to just US$5,700 for the entire daily volume of wasted hides, i.e. a rounding error.
HIDEXE is a capable online leather trading platform that can considerably accelerate and automate the global procurement process and increase trading profits of both sellers and buyers and prevent greenhouse gas emissions. Now imagine if the industry players who are not using HIDEXE and are currently choosing to send cowhides to waste, decided to sign up and start using this platform for the good of the planet …and their wallet. It’s easy if you try.
The numbers speak for themselves.