Leather is a controversial fiber. First, it is not an animal-friendly option since it is made of dead animal skin.
Can leather ever be ethical?
However, most of the hides used to make leather come from animals raised for their meat. In that sense, it is a by-product from another industry. If those hides are not used to produce leather, they would have to be thrown away, thus accumulating more waste.
It could be said that ideally, no animals should be killed by humans, but until that happens, it is probably preferable to use the by-products of the industry rather than throw it away.
Leather is also a material with unique properties, durable and hard wearing.
That said, conventional leather is heavily criticized for the environmental impact of the tanning process: Toxic chemicals are used (chromium in 75% of cases) to transform the skins into wearable leather.
Those substances are often dumped into rivers, polluting freshwater and oceans. Also, most of the tanning factory workers around the world do not wear adequate protection and suffer from skin, eye, and respiratory diseases, cancer, and more due to their exposure to chemical substances.
Many children also work in tanneries.
“Chrome-free” leather, which usually means aldehyde-tanned or vegetable-tanned, is an alternative to chrome-tanned leather. However, it has been proven that its environmental impact is very similar to chrome-tanned leather.
For those reasons, conventional leather doesn’t belong to SANE Approved Material List.
But leather can also be environmentally friendly. Some tanneries recycle and purify of their wastewater and have excluded harmful chemicals from their processes. Responsible leather belongs to SANE Approved Material List.
A product made of at least 90% responsible leather (or blended with other SANE Approved Material) and produced in a facility holding a SANE Scope Certificate is eligible to be certified SANE.
Sources: SustainYourStyle; GoodOnYou. (2022). Want to buy leather? Retrieved from: https://goodonyou.eco/buy-leather-what-to-look-out-for/
Picture: Pixabay