LEATHER
Image: Jo-Anne McArthur/ We Animals
Huge stack of piled skins, Australia, 2017
THE LEATHER INDUSTRY
Image: Jo-Anne McArthur/ We Animals
Many people associate“leather” with marketing terms like genuine, real, and natural - especially in comparison to circumfaunal materials. What does the data tell us that leather marketing won’t? Below you’ll find an overview of leather industry impacts with links to learn more.
LEATHER IS BIG BUSINESS
Leather is not a waste-diverting charity. It is a profit-driven business expected to be worth $128.61 billion USD by 2022, with a global leather industry dependent upon the slaughter of about 1 billion animals annually (2019, FAO).
LEATHER IS A SUBSIDIZED SLAUGHTER INDUSTRY
Image: Jo-Anne McArthur/ We Animals
Buying leather funds slaughter and is therefore a valuable ‘co-product’ [PDF 654KB]. Cattle are slaughtered in both beef and dairy industries. Some animals are slaughtered specifically for their skin. Furthermore, farmed-animal industries are often subsidized. The US government, for example, spends $38 billion a year (PDF, 712 KB ) propping up cattle farming.
Image: Jo-Anne McArthur/ We Animals
LEATHER & CLIMATE
14.5% of all human-related greenhouse gas emissions result from the animals humans farm for slaughter, with 65% of these emissions coming from cattle. These animal agricultural emissions are more significant than the fuel exhaust of all planes, cars and trains around the world combined. Vegan leather alternatives have been found to be less environmentally impactful to produce than conventional leather. Data from the Sustainable Apparel Coalition shows that cow skin leather is the third most environmentally impactful material to produce. Even polyurethane synthetic leather has less than half the impact.
LEATHER & WATER
It takes over 4500 gallons of water to make 1 cow skin leather tote. That’s like filling an average bathtub 100 times.
The ocean is under assault from animal farming. In 2019, a 7000 square-mile area larger than the state of Connecticut was declared a dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, mainly due to runoff from factory farming.
Image: NASA captures clouds of sediment in the Gulf of Mexico on Nov. 10, 2009. (Photo: Jeff Schmaltz/NASA Earth Observatory MODIS Rapid Response Team)
LEATHER & POLLUTANTS
Photo © Alex Masi
Kanpur Indian Leather Industry — Two young boys are collecting skins from a bath during the process of liming, the removal of hair and impurities with the use of water and various agents, in an illegal tannery unit inside Jajmau Industrial Area, Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh
Contrary to popular opinion, leather does not effectively biodegrade. Not even according to the tanning industry itself, and not even ‘vegetable tanned’ leather. Leather is inorganic: 90% of leather around the world is tanned with chemicals like chromium, as well as formaldehyde and arsenic. Leather is a top polluter that is so toxic, 95% of US tanneries now operate overseas to avoid environmental oversight penalties. Leather is and carcinogenic with Tannery workers suffering cancer at high rates due to exposure to tanning chemicals.
LEATHER & BIODIVERSITY
Research findings published in Science of the Total Environment state that “livestock production is the single largest driver of habitat loss.”
The farming of cattle for beef and leather products is responsible for 80% of the Amazon’s deforestation. The other major driver of this deforestation is soy production, of which 80% goes towards animal feed. Brazil is the world’s most significant ‘beef’ exporter, and third most significant bovine skin exporter. What’s more, The Center for Biological Diversity reports that the “ecological costs of livestock grazing exceed that of any other western land use,” and that “livestock grazing is the most widespread cause of species endangerment.”
ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS:
Image: Jo-Anne McArthur/ We Animals
In addition to the environmental impacts of leather, there are also ethical considerations in the leather supply chain from animal cruelty to human rights and indigenous land sovereignty.
You can read in-depth about those topics at our parent website, Collective Fashion Justice
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE LEATHER SUPPLY CHAIN AT COLLECTIVE FASHION JUSTICE
Image: Jo-Anne McArthur/ We Animals
Artificial insemination of a dairy cow. Spain, 2010.
Image: Jo-Anne McArthur/ We Animals
Pulling a calf from a dairy cow. Spain, 2010.
Image: Jo-Anne McArthur/ We Animals
Newborn calf. Spain, 2010