JW Animal Protein: Turning Tannery Hide Waste into Gelatin

To tackle the large volume of solid waste generated by tanneries in the Savar Tannery Industrial Estate, a Chinese-invested company, Bangladesh JW Animal Protein Co., Ltd., has launched an innovative project that recycles tannery hide waste into high-value export products.

Founded in 2023, JW Animal Protein is a joint venture with investment from Yuanfei Group of Wenzhou, China, and is the first and only foreign-invested company in Bangladesh that produces gelatin from leather waste. The company has built a 9-acre plant in Nayarhat, Savar, equipped with an effluent treatment plant (ETP), which extracts gelatin directly from raw cattle-hide trimmings. Under its business plan, JW Animal Protein aims to export around 5,000 tons of gelatin a year to China and Russia.

On 8 April 2025, the company signed a memorandum of understanding with Dhaka Tannery Industrial Estate Waste Treatment Plant Company to advance the collection and treatment of hide waste. Tanneries in the Savar estate generate about 8,000–9,000 tons of chrome shavings every year; in the past this solid waste was dumped along the riverbanks, causing pollution.

By handling hide waste in a standardised way, the project reduces environmental harm and builds a traceable, circular supply of cattle-hide raw material for gelatin production.