Vegan vs Leather - Why veg tan leather is more animal and eco friendly than vegan imitations

Angry vegans like to try be up my ass about using leather. I am constantly asked for vegan friendly renditions of my work. But here is the truth that many people don’t want to hear. Vegan replacement options for leather goods are more harmful to the environment, animals, and humans than real leather.

Allow me to explain. 

In the US, most of the hides used to make leather are a byproduct of the meat industry. I will not go into the ethics of the meat industry as that is an entirely different topic. However, the meat industry would exist without the leather industry. If leather were not being made out of the hides, they would just be thrown away as waste. Animals are rarely killed solely for their leather, with the exception of some exotics and fur.

Nothing exists in this world without impact. So what is the impact of leather? There are two primary methods of tanning, or the process of turning a raw hide into leather. Chrome tanning, and vegetable tanning or veg tanning. Other methods do exist, but theyre rare and not the focus here.

Chrome tanning uses chemicals including chromium to soften and tan leather. It cuts down on time and adds many different options as far as texture, temper, and colors than older methods. 

There is a lot of fear mongering around chrome tanning. First, that it leaves chemicals on the leather that can harm you. This is not true. The chemicals used to tan and soften leather are thoroughly washed out of the hide early in the process. The type of chromium used in tanning is chrom alum, which is a stable and safe chemical. People use it to grow crystals and stuff. People who want to fear monger equate it with hexavalent chromium, which is toxic, but not used in tanning.

The second fear mongering myth is that it pollutes the environment. There is some truth to this. There are, unfortunately, tanneries out there that do not care about their effect on the environment and will dump harmful tanning chemicals into streams and lakes. This is why it is very important to purchase leather goods from artisans who source their leather from reputable tanneries that are committed to eco friendly practices.

Veg tan leather is not vegan leather, it is a hide that has been tanned using tannins. Tannins are chemical compounds derived from plants. These days, most tanneries use synthetically produced tannins to be able to keep up with production. In recent decades, tanneries have been perfecting this method of tanning to produce hides that are nearly indistinguishable from chrome-tanned hides in terms of softness, finish, and fashion. 

Veg tan leather is not necessarily better for the environment. Chemicals are still used in veg tanning and if they are not properly disposed of they can lead to negative environmental effects. Veg tanning does take longer than chrome tanning which usually means the leather is more expensive, but the gap on this is closing rapidly and doesn't necessarily mean it is higher quality. There are very expensive chrome tan leathers that put veg tan in the shade.

Veg tan leather also makes up a very small percentage of the leather market. It is growing due to more tanneries taking an interest since modern technology allows veg tan to now have a wider array of color and finishes, previously reserved only for chrome tan leathers. In the United States in particular, naked veg tan, or veg tan leather that has no dyes or finishes, is very popular in the small maker sector because of the push from Tandy leather, the Joanne Fabrics of the leather world.

Because veg tan leather can be tooled and wet molded it is a popular choice for costumes, small accessory goods, and anything leather you want to shape and carve a design into. If you've ever been to a Renaissance Fair, you've seen veg tan leather. Tandy did this because it's easy to sell to hobbyists and it gave birth to a generation of leatherworkers who know nothing else. This leather makes up about 1% of leather. Its most traditional use is in horse tack and saddlery.

“Vegan leather” is plastic. Sometimes PVC, sometimes a different chemical compound, but it is plastic. The cutesy names like vegan leather or pleather are a marketing gimmick. In fact, international trade laws require that for something to be marked as leather it must contain a certain percentage of animal hide. When these items go through international customs they must be labeled as the plastics they actually contain in order to be legally sold in quantity internationally. The names like Pleather are an attempt to fool people into thinking they are getting a product like leather, but without the imaginary environmental impact, when these products are much more harmful to the environment than leather.

 These are extremely harmful to the environment both in their production and over the long term. They take hundreds of years to break down, leaching toxins into the soil and becoming microplastics ingested by animals. Leather usually biodegrades in 25 to 50 years, yes, even chrome tanned leather.

But what about that pineapple/cork/leaf/cactus leather I saw on facebook? That could replace leather and it would be more environmentally friendly and vegan!

This is also false. Many of these plant matter options use plastic and or silicone in their production and almost none of them are biodegradable. Cork imitation leather is held together with layers of silicone, a material that is not biodegradable. When it is used in making these materials it is also no longer recyclable since the other material is so mixed in with the silicone is too difficult to separate. In many cases, the trees cork is obtained from are being overharvested and killed. 

Leaf leathers are frequently just a preserved leaf that has been adhered to fabric using acrylics and plastic sealants. 

These plant-based options are also rarely suited to the wide range of uses currently covered by leather. For example, the plant matter amalgams might be fine to make a tote bag or book cover but would be utterly unreasonable for a dress or briefcase. It also isn’t strong enough to become load-bearing straps or able to be braided or tooled. 

At time of writing, none of the companies claiming to make a real, useable plant based leather with no plastic or silicone have managed to produce their product on a scale that allows for any kind of production.

Why don't I use upcycled or recycled leather?

There is a third type of leather that falls between real leather and fake leather. It is called composite leather. This is "leather" made by gluing leather dust and tiny pieces into a large sheet. It is similar to the way cardboard is made from paper fibers. It is then stamped with a leather texture pattern and sold as leather. Since it is technically a certain percentage leather material, it is legally allowed to be sold and imported as leather.

It is most frequently used in upholstery, clothing, or any products that require large, unbroken, areas of leather. It looks a lot like leather. For some of them the only way to tell the difference is the way it damages over time. It will have an outer layer that flakes off in a similar way to vinyl. It cannot be repaired or reconditioned like real leather and does not have the strength or longevity of real leather. You can sometimes see a small stamp on these goods labeling it "Genuine Leather". This is a sign it is probably composite leather. The only stamp real leather hides have is sometimes a mark of the tannery, and a number that tells you how large the original hide was. This mark is on the flesh side of the leather and not always present in the final product.

Peta and other unethical organizations have done a great job of capitalizing on people's empathy and manufactured guilt. However, the choice boils down to this; consume a product that is extremely harmful to the environment and all the animals in it during its production and for hundreds of years to come (if it is even biodegradable at all) or choose a product made in a way that is sustainable and without toxic byproducts and created from a resource that was already in existence and would otherwise be wasted.

Also, most adhesives, including the ones used in the construction of "vegan leather" items, contain animal products. Animal products also derived from the meat industry. 

Vegan is a marketing term. Like all good marketing, it is attempting to make you feel something. In this case, it is trying to make you feel like you are making a more eco and animal friendly choice. Marketing in this case is just a fancy term for lying. And yes, they can, and do, legally get away with it.

If your true intent is to make purchasing choices that are actually more environmentally responsible and not just virtue signaling, then please consider leather rather than plastic.

Note for Kinksters- When it comes to BDSM gear the leather used in the lower end toys that are sold by resellers (people who purchase their stock in bulk from overseas) is usually from the countries whose tanning methods are the most destructive. Most mass-produced BDSM toys come from Pakistan and other middle eastern countries whose environmental laws around manufacturing are severely lacking. These companies not only use very toxic tanning methods that harm the environment, but their workers are directly exposed to these toxins.

India is also one of the countries with the worst leather tanning practices and a country where cows are slaughtered just for their hides. These cows are frequently taken to the neighboring country of Pakistan to be killed and their hides sold there.

I understand that these items are usually inexpensive and that can make them very appealing, but if you can, purchasing your kink gear from a leatherworker who sources their leather from reputable tanneries is better.