An Everest of leathers to be disposed of every day: what can we do?

Real Leather is Real Sustainability: I don't know if you've already seen the Unic campaign that aims to spread and strengthen knowledge and awareness of leather, but above all some false myths to dispel related to the world of leather goods, especially among younger.

It is not the first time that Unic, or trade associations similar to it, have launched this kind of campaigns: I do not want to discuss about the graphic, stylistic choices or the actual message they have created, but I want to focus on the urgency and on the importance of the underlying question: sustainability.

It is undeniable that nowadays this is one of the most discussed and debated topics, but it is sad, as a producer, to see how many bullshits are fired about it in order to support one's faction.

As a manufacturer I am agnostic about the use or not of leather, because it depends on the identity and soul of the brand for which I make the collection of belts, but as Unic claims, the time has come to dispel some false myths and start from the first, and most important: there are no more reasons to use leather.

This is what Miomojo, a Lombard vegan fashion brand, claims from the pages of Fashion United, that there are no more excuses to use leather.

The reason? Because there is a large offer of alternative materials on the market.

This is true.

Or rather, it would be in a perfect world.

Because if on the one hand it is true that there is a great offer, on the other hand we must also take into account the impact that these alternative materials have on the environment.

But let's proceed in order.

To argue that there are no more excuses to use leather is a stretch.

Let's just think of the fact that, according to Istat data, about three million cattle are slaughtered every year in Italy and meat is still a fundamental food for many people today.

And the three million slaughtered cows translate into 15 million square meters of leathers and more than 200 million belts and just to give you an idea, if we put them one above each other we would reach 15,000 meters, like a Mount Everest and a K2 on top of each other.

What the f**k? Is it a problem or not? Where do we put all these leathers?

And in the world?

In this case we are talking about almost a million cows slaughtered every day. And the count is "quickly" done: 5000 meters of leather to be disposed of every day, a Mont Blanc a day of leather to be disposed of.

Everyday.

And if meat ends up at the butchers and supermarket counters, we know well that the hides are either reused by the tanning industry or they must be disposed of in landfills, which nowadays represent a sore point for most of the Italian regions and not only.

It is obvious that there is an ethical question at the base: if people continue to eat meat there will always be leathers to be disposed of. No cow is skinned just for hides.

The leather goods industry is therefore solving a problem: it is a circular economy system that aims to reuse or rather recycle products that would otherwise be thrown away. Not to mention that the new regulations for tanning impose stringent rules in environmental terms also for all processing phases and the materials used.

And the alternatives Miomojo was talking about what would they be?

Before talking about it, I would like to clarify that in this article I will talk about "vegan leather" even if, as I mentioned in a previous article, officially from 24 October 2020 in Italy it is forbidden to use the term leather to indicate a material other than animal hides.

But let's go back to the alternative materials; certainly they can be divided into two macro categories:

- “Vegan leathers” made with PVC or polyurethanes

- Materials made with vegetable waste

The first type of "vegan leather" is very often made with polyurethane or PVC, in short cheap plastic. Both have a high environmental cost both for the chemical process to which they are subjected to make the material flexible enough to imitate leather both for the short duration of the products and for the long disposal times but above all for the massive pollution they entail: I remind you that synthetic belts are not recyclable.

So they must be disposed of in incinerators: just think when you burn a piece of plastic; do you know the chemical smell that burns your nostrils? So, think of this large-scale effect: hundreds of smokestacks all over the world spitting these poisons into the air.

In this regard, the statement of Amy Powney, creative director of Mother of Pearl, is very fitting; she declared the question as follows "If you are buying fake leather you must realize that in the end you are buying plastic." And it is true.

A separate discussion must instead be made when talking about leathers made with natural waste materials such as, for example, fibers made from discarded pineapple leaves or from cacti and mushrooms. These are proposals with a decidedly lower environmental impact, but which for now cannot represent a real alternative to leather, at least on a large scale, both due to the high cost of raw materials and the limited production capacities of each alternative.

Whether you are a Fred Flinstones-style carnivore or an animal friend, it may have happened to you to reflect on this issue, especially in light of the market trends that see the eco debate (and bio in food) continuously on the rise.

And I am no less; several times I have wondered about the future of leather goods and about the choice of an animal material rather than an alternative one and if until now I have always preferred leather it is because I knew that it was a good compromise at all levels.

But as I told you at the beginning of the article, as a producer, I am agnostic about the use or not of leather because it depends on the demands of the brand and its identity: I have repeatedly used alternative materials, but my choice fell on a material, natural from the beginning, sustainable and not resulting of other waste.

If you want to know what material I'm talking about or if you are inuterested in developing a sustainable belt collection,

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