I think animal welfare is the bigger factor for most people avoiding leather, and while artificial leather is just plastic and certainly not great environmentally, traditional leather production is also very very much polluting nature with chemicals (Chromium tanning etc. ) plus it still supports the whole factory farming system which is terrible in its own right. I’m hoping fungus based leather or some lab grown variant will bring a real alternative someday.
Natural leather is durable and lasting and where its used can be repaired, unlike artificial leather.
If a cow has to be killed due to people wanting its meat, why waste its hide instead of using it? The poluter here is the meat industry. Not leather production.
To turn hide into leather one can use chemicals yes, but natural tanning is still used widely.
In a perfect world lether can also come from animals that have died of natural causes.
Plastic leather also wears out so quickly. Real leather is much stronger and easier to repair/restore.
As the person highlighted (and you have expanded on), there are a lot of ethical and sustainability problems with the leather industry as it is, but I think it’d be far better to improve the problems with natural leather than to expect much from the plastic leather
I think animal welfare is the bigger factor for most people avoiding leather, and while artificial leather is just plastic and certainly not great environmentally, traditional leather production is also very very much polluting nature with chemicals (Chromium tanning etc. ) plus it still supports the whole factory farming system which is terrible in its own right. I’m hoping fungus based leather or some lab grown variant will bring a real alternative someday.
Natural leather is durable and lasting and where its used can be repaired, unlike artificial leather.
If a cow has to be killed due to people wanting its meat, why waste its hide instead of using it? The poluter here is the meat industry. Not leather production. To turn hide into leather one can use chemicals yes, but natural tanning is still used widely.
In a perfect world lether can also come from animals that have died of natural causes.
Plastic leather also wears out so quickly. Real leather is much stronger and easier to repair/restore.
As the person highlighted (and you have expanded on), there are a lot of ethical and sustainability problems with the leather industry as it is, but I think it’d be far better to improve the problems with natural leather than to expect much from the plastic leather