Ethical Leather: An Oxymoron Or Real Possibility?

Animal welfare concerns

When it comes to answering the question, “Is leather ethical?”, there’s one big elephant (or cow) in the room: it is the skin of a dead animal. 

For some, this is the deal-breaker, and for good reason. 

Every year, more than one billion animals are slaughtered for hides and skins. Oftentimes, these are factory-farmed animals, which have already been exposed to horrendous conditions: crowding, deprivation, cruel treatment, confinement, and the list goes on. 

This is for cowhide alone. 

Other “exotic” types of leather might come with even worse histories—like stories of crocodile farms or single-family homes being packed to the brim with alligators, packed so tightly they “fill every inch of [each] room”.

But isn’t leather a byproduct of the meat industry?

While leather can be sourced exclusively as a by-product of the meat industry, there’s a significant economic incentive for raising and killing animals for their skin—making it more of a coproduct of the meat industry.

With leather consumption on the rise (and meat consumption on the decline), one might wonder if it will eventually take over as the main reason to raise and kill animals. 

It makes sense given the overconsumption demanded by the modern fashion industry.

Unlike times past, a leather handbag or pair of shoes isn’t just a once-in-a-lifetime gift or something to be enjoyed and passed down through generations. 

Now, leather has a pretty significant place in fast fashion, and it’s not too difficult to find cheap leather by some of the industry’s largest, biggest, and most problematic brands.  

As put by The Guardian: 

“The leather handbag is no longer a bag for life. To luxury fashion houses, leather goods are the rocket fuel of their huge expansion over the past decade. To high street fashion brands they represent an unrivalled cash cow. To consumers, they’re just another disposable fashion product. The fact that they are made from the skin of a beast is incidental.” 

The impact of manufacturing

Without strict environmental regulation, much of the manufacturing of leather occurs in developing countries (a slow migration over the past few decades).

Unfortunately, these vulnerable workers and communities are the ones who deal with large volumes of effluent, toxic compounds that leach into nearby soils and waterways, and the industry’s significant water requirements that threaten their own water security. 

Tanning just a single ton of rawhide requires around 50 cubic meters of water—or 13,208 gallons. Often, these will contain a range of polluting substances at the end of the process, too.

Of all the highly toxic raw materials used, just 20% eventually become leather. The other adhesives, cleaning solvents, and tanning chemicals (like lead and arsenic) end up polluting the environment. 

The manufacturing process can be just as hazardous for workers. 

China is the world’s largest producer of leather, accounting for 25% of global production. In China alone, roughly four to seven million people are involved with the leather industry. 

There, benzene poisoning has been associated with several deaths in the industry. It can also cause headaches, throat and eye irritation, dizziness, and nausea, and is just one of the many volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to commonly plague leather processing facilities. 

In a 2017 report that looked at the world’s second-largest producer of leather, India, several other risks were considered to affect some of the country’s 2.5 million leather workers. 

There were reports of people getting trapped in machines, suffocating from toxic fumes, or even drowning in toxic tannery sludge (along with less gruesome but equally horrific cases of forced and child labor).

Tannery workers worldwide have been considered to have an increased risk of several types of cancer. 

Exposed to what’s known as “leather dust,” it’s been estimated that a leather industry worker can inhale more than 40 different chemicals, including dyes, acids, and heavy metals. 

The latter two are associated with increased rates for blood, bladder, respiratory, colon, lung, nasal, and rectum cancers. Heavy metals have been linked to not just cancer, either, but also organ damage and nervous system damage.

Then there are the environmental concerns of tanning… 

Leather’s high environmental costs

The toxic chemicals that are bad for workers are just as bad for our planet. 

Roughly 90% of leather is produced using chromium tanning, which produces carcinogenic chromium that is so toxic, many tanneries have closed in Europe and the US.

Now developing nations are instead forced to deal with chromium, effluent, and its impact on waterways.

Not only that, but raising animals for any purpose is associated with significant land overuse, water consumption, and deforestation. 

Runoff from leather-producing farms can also lead to water eutrophication, where increased nitrogen levels from animal manure lead to increased algal blooms.  Eventually, this depletes oxygen in the water and forms “dead zones” where animals can suffocate.  

All in all, when compared to vegan leather—even petroleum-derived polyurethane (PU) leather—cow-derived leather is considered to have an environmental impact nearly three times as high. 

It’s no wonder fashion lovers are wondering how to buy ethical leather.