Unless you (wisely) stay off social media entirely, you have likely run into some of the extremely common discourse surrounding leather and plastic. It seems to be the currently in-vogue criticism of veganism, but it is based on shaky foundations at best… So let’s look at some of the most common arguments made in this debate, and how the conversation is often framed in bad faith.
1) Leather is not sustainable.
Approximately 85% of all leather (almost all leather you’ll find in stores) is tanned using chromium. During the chrome tanning process, 40% of unused chromium salts are discharged in the final effluents, which make their way into waterways and pose a serious threat to wildlife and humans. There are also significant GHG emissions from the sheet amount of energy required to produce and tan leather.
Before we even get the cow’s hide, you first need to get them to slaughter weight, which is a hugely resource-intensive process. Livestock accounts for 80% of all agricultural land use, and grazing land for cattle likely represents the majority of that figure. To produce pound of beef (and the subsequent hide), 6-8 pounds of feed are required. An estimated 86% of the grain used to feed cattle is unfit for human consumption, but 14% alone represents enough food to feed millions of people. On top of that, one-third of the global water footprint of animal production is related to cattle alone. The leather industry uses greenwashing to promote leather as an eco-friendly material. Leather is often marketed as an eco-friendly product, for example, 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.
2) Leather is not just a byproduct.
Some cows are raised specifically for leather, but this a minority and usually represents the most expensive forms of leather. This doesn’t mean that leather is just a waste product of beef and dairy, or that it is a completely incidental byproduct; it is more accurate to call leather a tertiary product of the beef and dairy industries. Hides used to fetch up to 50% of the total value of the carcass, this has dropped significantly since COVID-19 to only about 5-10%, but this is recovering, and still represents a significant profit margin. Globally, leather accounts for up to 26% of major slaughterhouses’ earnings. Leather is inextricably linked to the production of beef and dairy, and buying leather helps make the breeding, exploitation, and slaughter of cows and steers a profitable enterprise.
3) Leather is not as biodegradable as you think.
Natural animal hides are sustainable, and this is often the misleading way leather sellers word it. “Cow hide is fully biodegradable!” is true, it just conveniently leaves out the fact that the tanning process means that the hide means that leather takes between 25 and 40 years to break down. Even the much-touted (despite it being a tiny portion of the market) vegetable-tanned leather is not quickly biodegradable. Since leather is not recyclable either, most end up incinerated, or in landfill. The end-of-life cycle and how it relates to sustainability is often massively overstated by leather sellers, when in fact, it is in the production process that most of the damage is done.
4) Leather is not humane.
The idea that leather represents some sort of morally neutral alternative to the evils of plastic is frankly laughable, at least to anyone who has done even a little bit of research into this exploitative and incredibly harmful industry. Cows, when properly cared for, can live more than fifteen years. However, most cows are usually slaughtered somewhere around 2-3 years old, and the softest leather, most luxurious leather comes from the hide of cows who are less than a year old. Some cows are not even born before they become victim to the industry. Estimates vary, but according to an EFSA report, on average 3% of dairy cows and 1.5 % of beef cattle, are in their third trimester of pregnancy when they are slaughtered.
Slaughter procedures vary slightly by country, but a captive bolt pistol shot to the head followed by having their throats slit, while still alive, is standard industry practice. This represents the “best” a slaughtered cow can hope for, but many reports and videos exist that suggest that cows still being alive and conscious while being skinned or dismembered on the production line is not uncommon, some of these reports come from slaughterhouse workers themselves.
5) Leather often involves human exploitation.
The chemicals used to tan leather, and the toxic water that is a byproduct of tanning, affect workers as well as the environment; illness and death due to toxic tanning chemicals are extremely common. Workers across the sector have significantly higher morbidity, largely due to respiratory diseases linked to the chemicals used in the tanning process. Exposure to chromium (for workers and local communities), pentachlorophenol, and other toxic pollutants increases the risk of dermatitis, ulcer nasal septum perforation, and lung cancer.
Open Democracies’ report for the Child Labour Action Research Programme shows that there is a startlingly high prevalence of the worst forms of child labour across the country’s entire leather supply chain. Children as young as seven have been found in thousands of small businesses processing leather. This problem is endemic throughout multiple countries supplying the global leather market.
6) Pleather is not a ‘vegan thing’.
Plastic clothing is ubiquitous in fast fashion, and it certainly wasn’t invented for vegans. Plastic leather jackets have been around since before anyone even knew what the word vegan meant, marketing departments have begun describing it as ‘vegan leather’ but it’s no more a vegan thing than polyester is. Most people who wear pleather are not vegan, they just can’t afford to buy cow’s leather, which remains extremely expensive compared to comparable fabrics.
It is striking how anti-vegans consistently talk about how ‘not everyone can afford to eat plant-based’ and criticise vegans for advocating for veganism on that basis, yet none of them seem to mind criticisms directed at people for wearing a far cheaper alternative than leather. You can obviously both be vegan and reduce plastic (as we all should), but vegans wear plastic clothing for the same reason everyone else does: It is cheaper.
7) Plastic is not the only alternative.
When engaging in criticism of pleather, the favourite tactic seems to be drawing a false dilemma where we pretend the only options are plastic and leather. Of course, this is a transparent attempt to draw the debate on lines favourable to advocates of leather, by omitting the fact that you can quite easily just buy neither one.
Alternatives include denim, hemp, cork, pineapple fiber, mushroom fiber, cotton, linen, bamboo (which is processed into rayon), recycled plastic, and pinatex, to name a few. There are exceptions in professions like welding, where an alternative can be difficult to source, but nobody needs a jacket, shoes, or a bag that looks like leather. For most of us, leather is a luxury item that doesn’t even need to be replaced at all.
If you’d like to see a detailed summary of the comparison between leather/wool and plastic, as well as the available alternatives, you can find that here.
8) Leather is not uniquely long-lasting.
The longevity of leather is really the only thing it has going for it, environmentally speaking. Replacing an item less often means fewer purchases, and will likely have a lower environmental impact than one you have to replace regularly. Leather is not unique in this respect, however, and the idea that it is, is mostly just effective marketing.
As your parents will tell you, a well-made denim jacket can last a lifetime. Hemp and bamboo can both last for decades, as can cork and pinatex. Even cotton and linen can last for many years when items are looked after well. While some materials are more hard-wearing than others, how long an item will last is mostly the result of how well-made the product is and how well it is maintained, not whether or not the item is leather.
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