Demand YOUR local Retailers carry Eco Friendly "Leather" Shoes/Bags

Producing leather—whether by chemical tanning or vegetable tanning—comes with a host of environmental problems. On the scale it is currently conducted, it heavily contributes to global warming, land devastation, environmental pollution, the depletion of natural resources, and water-supply contamination, not to mention the spread of disease and the abuse of billions of animals.

Though some may say synthetics are also toxin producing, from start to finish, the amount of energy required to create a leather hide is 20 times greater than that used to produce a synthetic material. The processing of leather includes breeding and raising the animals, transporting feed, removing animal waste, powering housing and killing facilities, the use of vaccines and antibiotics, and removing carcasses and transferring pelts. At the tannery, the skins are sorted, soaked, fleshed, tanned, wrung, dried, kicked, cleaned, trimmed, buffed, dried again, finished, then transported to the garment maker, wholesaler, and so on.

From start to finish, the amount of energy required to create a leather hide is 20 times greater than what’s used to produce a synthetic material.

Leather is the hide of an animal. As such it is, by nature, meant to decompose. To prevent decomposing, it must be  treated with a constellation of toxic chemicals— lead, cyanide, formaldehyde, tannins, solvents, formaldehyde, and chlorophenols—that pollute the land, air, and water. At the same time, toxic gases like ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and carcinogenic arylamines are emitted into the air. The smell of a tannery is the most horrifyingly putrid smell on earth.

What about vegetable dying?

Vegetable tanning uses ingredients from vegetable matter which gives the leather a more subtle, muted color. Every other step in the process is the same - “eco-friendly” vegetable tanning is just as polluting as chrome tanning

THE CASE FOR ALTERNATIVES

Synthetic materials account for far less pollution—and only a fraction of the energy used. Synthetic polymers however are not the only alternatives. There are plenty of plant-based or sustainable and renewable fabrics available, including cork, wood, linen, hemp, cotton, bamboo, ultrasuede and more.

Is LEATHER AS A BYPRODUCT of the meat industry? So its OK!

Leather isn’t a byproduct of meat industry. As more people reduce their intake of meat and dairy products, the industry increasingly relies on money made from selling skins. In India, there is a huge industry built around slaughtering animals for their skins alone, exporting hides, and employing child laborers.

We live in a culture that is  brainwashed, through incredible marketing, by those who stand to profit from the continual abuse of our fellow living creatures, as well as the surreal concept that fur or the hide of a dead animal connotes luxury.

This petition is aimed to promote HAVING THE CHOICE - demand your retailers give it to you.