De sale à durable ? Le tannage du XIXe au XXIe siècle[From dirty to sustanaible ? Tanning industry nineteenth to twenty-first century]

The tanning industry is presented today, by its own enterprises but also in the media, as a champion of sustainable development through the come back of the vegetable method, abandoned since the early twentieth century. The argument is problematic in relation to the concept of sustainable development itself, but also with regard to the history of this industry which is in contrary among the most polluting. The abandonment of vegetable tannage at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries must be understood by situating this technological development in its economic and social framework. Adherence to sustainable development seems well, therefore, like a recent development to meet the challenges of the sector.