Leather is very sustainable. Leather meets the sustainable criteria because it is based on a raw material that is a by-product of animals (mostly cows), which are required by consumers who consume meat. It is a by-product of the food industry that is up-cycled, preventing 7.3million tons of waste each year.
A Generational Thing
Real leather can last generations! Compare real leather to faux leather and anyone can feel and smell the difference. Faux leather does not last long and needs to be replaced at least once a year if the product is used often, sometimes, it needs to be replaced even more often because it can Crack and break. Faux leather is not sustainable and ends up in landfills which is bad for the environment. Faux leather is fake leather.
What About Vegan Leather?
Sadly, vegan leather is not sutainable. Vegan leather mimics real leather, but it's produced using artificial or plant-based materials. In many instances—particularly within fast fashion—vegan leather is produced with PVC and polyurethane. This means that vegan leather contains plastics, so one can easily see how this product is not sutainable or environmentally-friendly.
Our Leathers
We obtain our real leathers from reputable companies. Each company we buy leather from focuses on sustainability and we appreciate this fact. Our goal is to use these leathers in a responsible manner and we inturn sell our smaller pieces and scraps to other business owners so that very little gets thrown away.
The Dump
As a natural product, leather will biodegrade in a typical landfill in 10 to 50 years, depending on the type of leather. The factors depend on if the leather is in its natural state or coated with a finish.
Now faux leather - Polyurethane faux leathers do decompose, but they take 500 years to do so to break down!
Vegan leather has synthetics used that don't fully biodegrade, although they can be broken down to a small degree. Vegan leather can will also release toxic particles and phthalates, which can affect the health of animals and the environment, which includes humans.
Knowledge is power. We want to share the facts about real and fake leathers. While some people may not feel comfortable with real leather, think about the environmental impacts of those fake and artificial leathers. This is why we choose to be sustainable and only use real leather.
The Bientro Artisans

Comments