Leather tannery pollution causes DNA damage and oxidative stress to humans – something we need to know before find out what is eco leather.

90% of tannery workers lives less than 50 years in Bangladesh. It is a big risk to industry workers and people liveing in the surrounding. It also partly relates to the deforestation of the globe.

That’s why Eco leather is needed.

However, the word Eco is used for marketing too much. Eco leather is no exception. It can be difficult to recognize the true Eco. And if we aren’t certain what the word actually means, there’s a greater risk of being misled. In this post, you will find answers to true eco leather:

#1
Key Concepts

Some necessary concepts prior to digging deep.
Leather is made from the skin of an animal by tanning.
Eco is eco-friendly. Not ecologically harmful, no harm to plants, living creatures.
Vegan leather is produced from non-animal sources.

In brief, below 4 aspects are highly related:
Animal skin
No ecologically harmful
Plants
Living creatures

#2
Why existence of eco leather

1. Challenges with traditional leather

Everything happens for a reason. Below video presents the problem caused by traditional leather industry. Watch the Video [>]

Humans have been using leather for centuries. The cost is also very high – water pollution, deforetation, damage to health of the tannery workers and people living in the surrouding.

2. Exist as solution

As our culture develops to be ecologically conscious, people started seeking for leather replacement that is more environmentally sustainable. Eco leather was developed due to such demand.

#3
What is eco leather?

1. What is NOT eco leather?

Let’s reverse think WHAT IS NOT.
Animal leather produced by traditional high-pollution tannery is not eco leather. Why?
It is big harm to both environment and animals. If you and me worked together to improve it, how to make it more eco?

2. Ways to eco

Comparsion brings truth.
Leather that is tanned and colored with vegetal-based materials as opposed to toxic chemicals is more eco. LESS polution.
Leather that is produced by consuming less power is more eco. LESS burdern to the earth.
Vegan leather that is not created from animal skins is more eco. NOT harmful to animals.
Vegan leather that is produced by clean production and low energy consumption is even more eco. LESS polution and LESS burden to the earth.
Vegan leather that is also good to user health is even more Eco. NOT harmful to humans.

In summary, 4 ways to increase eco level.
# 1 clean production.
# 2 less energy consumption.
# 3 less harm to animals.
# 4 less harm to humans.

3. Different forms of eco leather

There are different forms of eco leather. Some are more eco than others.
Eco-leather includes genuine leather that is tanned and dyed with vegetal-based materials (not toxic chemicals).
Eco-leather also includes vegan leather that does not come from an animal (no harm to animals)
It is even higher eco level if the production process consumes less energy.
If the type of vegan leather is more healthy to humans, then it is even higher eco level.

#4
What is eco leather made of？

It can be made from aminal skin with more eco process than traditional tannery.
It can be composition leather by utilizing leather off-cuts (contribute by avoiding leather off-cuts landfill)
It can be vegan leather made from synthetics and textiles such as PVC, traditional PU, solvent-free or waterborn PU.
It can be vegan leather made from pinapple plants.

Solvent-free or waterborn pu leather are more eco than traditional PU leather or PVC leather. Because there is better control on dioxins, plasticizer
, DMF, VOCs. Piñatex is vegan natural leather made from pineapple residues.

#5
Summary

Humans need eco solutions with leather.

There are 4 ways to be more eco:
1 more clean production;
2 less energy consumption;
3 less harm to animals;
4 less harm to humans.

There are multi forms of eco leather at different eco level:
1 animal leather by more clean production;
2 composition leather utilized leather off-cuts;
3 traditional vegan leather;
4 vegan leather with dioxins, plastizer, DMF or VOCs better controlled.

Reference

Leather. wikipedia.org
What does “eco-friendly” actually means? goodhousekeeping.com
Eco leather: what it is and why it belongs in your closet. hozencollection.com
Inside Bangladesh’s Polluted, Billion-Dollar Leather Industry. wired.com
Deforestation as a Systemic Risk: The Case of Brazilian Bovine Leather. mdpi.com

Discussion

Which forms of eco leather have you used? How it goes?
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