Guilt-free vegan leather is on the rise, but why and is it all good news?
Guilt-free vegan leather like this one from H&M partner Desserto is on the rise, but why exactly is this?
We’ve seen a flood of news concerning vegan-friendly alternatives to leather, and not the plastic variety but novel materials made from cacti, mushrooms, mangos and even grapes. Major fashion brands are getting in on it too, so why the sudden interest in animal-free leather and are there any downsides?
Two start-ups producing animal-free alternatives to leather - Fiquetex and Desserto - have bagged awards this week from the University of Oxford and PETA respectively, with the former using fique plant fibres and the latter using the prickly pear cactus. Vegan leathers made from mushrooms, pineapples and other fruits have been around for some years now, but have until very recently failed to break into the mainstream.
This is despite the findings of a report from the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) which pointed the finger at fashion as one of the most damaging industries in the world when it comes to the environment. According to UNEP, textile production accounts for 20 per cent of the world’s wastewater and 10 per cent of all carbon emissions.
Thankfully, some big names are waking up to the harm caused by leather, at least the harm it causes to the environment. H&M, one of the biggest names on the high street, has released a sustainable line that includes handbags and boots made from the grape waste produced by winemaking, as repurposed by bio-leather company Vegea, and is also using the cactus leather from PETA-award winner Desserto, mentioned above, in its upcoming ‘Science Story’ collection.
Speaking to Vogue on the upcoming collection, H&M sustainability manager Pascal Brun said: “Going forward, we need to be using more bio-based materials and more waste in our collections.”
Furthermore, giants of foot apparel are also moving away from animal skin. Adidas has pledged to start using renewable bio-materials made from cellulose and yam-based yeast, while Reebok, a subsidiary of Adidas we should note, will forgo the use of plastics for a new vegan trainer and instead utilise eucalyptus, natural rubber and algae foam.
It’s hard to say that these are not positive moves when we look at the true cost of leather made from cows and other animals, including quite often cat and dog skin fraudulently exported from China as cow skin. While none of the big fashion retailers have mentioned the rights of animals, with the driving force being increasing awareness of issues of environmental sustainability, leather is arguably just fur without the fluff. Thanks to the work of PETA and other campaign groups, the fight against fur has always centred on the ethical cost.
Many supporters of animal leather would in fact argue that it is both biodegradable and sustainable, referring to it rather euphemistically as a co- or by-product of animal agriculture, the argument being that it would go to waste otherwise. In the same way that vegetarians support animal death by consuming dairy and eggs, the idea that leather is somehow ethically justified in the name of ‘low waste living’ is equally flawed. By buying leather made from animal skin, we are supporting their exploitation and needless death, providing a secondary market to producers of animal-based food products.
Another big reason why H&M and other brands are moving away from animal skin is the human cost, which is substantial in regards to the toxic tanneries found in countries like Bangladesh and India. There, leather is tanned using harmful chemicals such as chromium that when inhaled cause severe respiratory issues, and are also thought to cause cancer. The combination of chromium salts and tanning liquor is often disposed of unsafely in local water supplies, effectively poisoning them.
Toxic tanneries in countries like Bangladesh and India expose workers to chemicals like chromium that cause cancer, skin and respiratory problems
Furthermore, when we look deeper, there is an often-overlooked counter-argument to the apparent low-waste nature of leather as a so-called co-product considering the chemicals and processes that go into changing animal skin into a product that does not decay as it naturally would. As Surge co-director Ed Winters will point out in our upcoming video on ‘animals in fashion’:
"It’s commonly believed that wearing leather is sustainable and ethical because we’re often already killing the animals, so we might as well use their skin as well. However, not only are some cattle killed exclusively for their skin, but due to the carcinogenic chemicals and the processing required to turn flesh into leather, it would still be more sustainable to just let the skin biodegrade, and doing so would also reduce water pollution and remove the serious human health and rights implications that occur during the tanning process."
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Even in more developed nations where one would assume tannery work is far less damaging, studies have found that cancer rates are up to 50 per cent higher amongst leather workers in countries like the US and Italy, with the latter being synonymous with the best leather products in the world. Yet even that is misleading, as products marked ‘made in Italy’ may in fact be made from leather imported from other countries.
So is ‘pleather’ a possible answer, that is, synthetic leather made from petroleum-based materials? Possibly, from an animal rights perspective. While it is not biodegradable, no animal has to die to produce pleather. Furthermore, the Pulse of the Fashion Industry cradle-to-gate analysis from 2017 found that leather is the least sustainable of all fabrics, with synthetic leather having half the environmental impact.
Yet we cannot ignore that more pleather would mean more plastic waste, which of course affects all beings on the planet, human and non-human, through its effect on our environment. This is why those pioneering technologies - the grape, mushroom and cactus leathers - are really our best hope to switch away from animal skin for both the planet and the animals themselves.
We discuss all the above and more in our video on ‘Animals in fashion’, out later this week. Please follow Surge on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, and also subscribe to our weekly newsletter to be among the first to see all our latest videos.
Andrew Gough is Media and Investigations Manager at Surge.
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