Leather is a co-product not a by product and is bad for the environment

• Wool

• Vegan Leather

• Studies on leather

• Szejda, 2023

Negative environmental effects of leather

• To produce one typical pair of cow skin leather boots, at least 66kg of CO2e is emitted. That’s like charging 8,417 smartphones^[1].
  • Even polyurethane synthetic leather boots and the impact of their supposed incineration at their ‘end of life’ (if they aren’t able to be recycled) emit almost seven times less emissions: 9.5kg of CO2e.
• Calculations by CIRCUMFAUNA show that while cow skin releases methane during its rotting process, further processing the skin results in even more environmental harm.
• Tanning 1kg of leather uses up to 2.5kg of chemical substances and up to 250 liters of water, and generates up to 6.1kg of solid waste.
• Fashion brands often use the Leather Working Group (LWG) certificate to present their leather as sustainable. However, this certification does not account for farm-level impacts, which constitute the majority of the negative environmental harm caused by leather.
• Creating leather from raw animal hide is a three-phrase process: preparing, tanning and crusting. It’s the second step, tanning, that can cause pollution.
• According to a 2006 study, “air and water pollution, widespread odors, poisoning from toxic gas, and unsafe disposal of waste are among the problems that have been experienced to a greater or lesser extent in the tanning industry.”
• Under perfect conditions, tanned leather may biodegrade in a half century, but can easily last thousands of years.
• Per square meter on average, bovine leather has a cradle to gate carbon impact of 73 kilograms, including emissions from transportation, factories, machinery and distribution. By comparison, emissions for cotton are just 8.46 kilograms per shirt.

How much value is in leather

The global leather goods market was valued at $394 billion USD in 2020

Different industry sources give figures of leather representing 3%, 6-8%,  5%, 10%, and 2% of the overall value of a slaughtered beef cow, and this report cites industry figures indicating that leather accounts for up to 26% of major slaughterhouses’ earnings globally.

More on Leather

from https://www.goodsignal.com/p/the-lust-for-leather

• The global leather market was valued at $444 billion in 2023, growing at a 5.8% CAGR, and is expected to reach $735 billion by 2032.3 It dwarfs in size markets for other materials such as polyester ($81 billion), cotton ($39 billion), wool ($38 billion), silk ($34 billion), nylon ($31 billion) and denim ($19 billion).
• North America is the largest market for leather goods, accounting for 37% of the market, while Asia-Pacific will see the fastest growth over the next decade.
• Footwear is the largest product segment, followed by apparel, automotive, and handbags.
• According to a 2022 survey in the United Kingdom, 67% of consumers say they buy and use leather because they can trust it to last a lifetime, while 55% say it's a high-quality material.4
• Sidestreams of meat, of which leather is a key component, can account for up to 26% of the big slaughterhouses’ earnings.6
• The leather production process today consists of three steps:
• Preparation: May include soaking, hair removal, liming, deliming, bating, bleaching, and pickling
• Tanning: Stabilizing collagen to increase the thermal, chemical, and microbiological stability of the hides and skins by using agents such as chromium salts, vegetable extracts, or other chemicals
• Crusting: Neutralization of the residual acids from the tanning process, followed by splitting, dyeing, fatliquoring, drying, and conditioning
• A Finishing process can be added, which may include oiling, brushing, buffing, coating, polishing, embossing, glazing, or tumbling.
• A common misconception is that leather is natural, biodegradable, or eco-friendly. Ironically, the tanning process stops the leather from biodegrading by stabilizing the collagen or protein fibers, turning a natural material into an unnatural one. Approximately 90% of tanneries use chromium,7 which produces the toxic chemical by-product hexavalent chromium, a known human carcinogen. Other chemicals used in the process include cadmium, chlorine, formaldehyde, lead, nickel, and zinc.
• Workers stand barefoot in wastewater with toxic chromium and handle acids and bleaches that can cause chronic skin diseases and even cancer while being exposed to fumes that can damage vision and cause severe respiratory problems without the benefit of protective goggles.
• According to the WHO, 90% of tannery workers in the region die before the age of 50.11
• Tannery workers in Italy and Sweden are 20% to 50% more likely to have cancer.12
• Producing leather is wasteful – 500kg of rawhide only produces 75kg of leather.
• Nearly 8,000 gallons of water to produce a single leather jacket.16
• Pure Earth, which identifies and implements solutions that stop toxic exposures, concluded that tanneries are one of the world’s top 10 toxic industries.17
• Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) conducted by Modern Meadow has shown that alternative leather utilizes 50% less energy and leads to 80% lower GHG emissions compared to conventional leather. It also reduces eutrophication potential, land use, and water consumption by over 95%.