Background: The leather industry is under pressure to develop environmentally efficient leather-making processes to comply with modern pollution and discharge legislation. Conventional leather-processing methods are known to contribute significant pollution loads in tannery wastewaters. The rationalized process described here involves a salt-free curing, lime and sulfide-free beamhouse process and post-tanning followed by tanning employing a reverse leather-processing technique. Results: Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis substantiated that the grain surface, fibre separation and tight packing of fibres are similar for leathers from conventional and rationalized processes. The functional performance of the leathers is found to be on par with that of conventionally processed leathers. The rationalized leather process reduces the usage and discharge of chemicals by 68% and 82%, respectively. It also enjoys the reduction in biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand, Cl-, SO42- and total solids loads by 58%, 62%, 95%, 66% and 85%, respectively. The rationalized process also results in reduction of water consumption and discharge and energy by 37%, 37% and 38%, respectively. Conclusion: The rationalized process utilizes resources efficiently with reduced environmental impact without compromising leather qualities and can be seen as being eco-efficient compared to the conventional leather process. (C) 2007 Society of Chemical Industry