Is leather bad for the environment?

Question

If so, how?


Please do not preach to me about the morality of using or wearing leather, that is irrelevant to my question.

Answer 1

No more than silk. Why to people worry about such things?

Answer 2

Leather in and of itself is not bad for the environment. It is the chemical usage for mass production that is bad. The small family farm raising 2 steers a year on grass then utilizing every part of the animal vs mass production. Most people would not wear leather if they had to actually go through the process of working a hide themselves now a days. However, because of this you could end up with a tremendous amount of wastage from large commercial farms. If you are concerned about the use of animal hides for clothing but still want a natural product look at Cotton, Wool, or Alpaca. These are natural fibers and there is no slaughter of the animal to harvest the fleece/cotton. The process to turn it into a garment is also a lot more appealing.

Answer 3

I remember visiting a tanning factory in grade school. A kid's father worked there. The smell was awful .... some of it from the product, and some from the chemicals used to process the cowhide into leather. Native Americans used tannins from acorns and brains from animals. Today companies like Textan and Rajam Chemicals produce a range of "leather auxiliaries for the tanning industry." I'm guessing profit takes precedent over environmental concerns that aren't regulated, so yes, probably bad for the environment.

Answer 4

It depends.

Raising cows in our modern industrialized factory farming system is incredibly bad for the environment. Whether they are used for meat, milk, or leather really does not change the fact that they require an immense amount of resources to raise, and produce a large amount of pollution as a by product.

Now, if you were to hunt a deer. Eat it. And then also use the leather, all in a conscious way that doesn't decimate their populations (as one person, good luck decimating their populations :-P ) this would be benign to the environment.

So, leather is no worse than any use of factory raised animals, but it is still a huge cause of pollution.

Answer 5

Yes. The factory farming conditions (as Alexa answered) in America are pitiful & reflect badly upon us. All the energy that is used to raise a cow is obscene. First, there's the grain (which unless is organic, is treated w/ pesticides & toxic fertilizer) (btw, cows should eat grass only) that goes into the feeding, all the pollution from cow waste in a concentrated area, all the hormones and anti-biotics they pump into the cow to make it "healthy" ends up in your milk and that's bad for you.

Factory farming conditions make disease travel faster in the confined area and more cows get sick. Do you really think they screen every cow? Nope- as long as a cow can barely stand, its in our food supply. Is it diseased and dying? Then its in your pet's food. Mad cow disease anyone?

Then there's the "carbon" footprint of transporting these cows, processing then and then transporting their parts. The burger you eat today is NOT the same burger that it was 50 years ago. Fewer family farms and huge corporate factory farms are extremely bad for America. And don't forget the cow farts that environmentalists are always talking about. Don't know about that, though.

Answer 6

If you want to see how much crud needs disposal from processing hides to make leather look for the next airing of the program DIRTY JOBS that shows a leather processing plant. That is a lot of chemical-soaked fat and hair that is looking for a burial location.

Answer 7

yes. Chemicals used during the leather making process are harmful and although I'm sure, I hope, every means of proper disposal are implemented there is always a percentage of these chemicals that leak into the nearby water sources and/or into the ground where it eventually settles into underground water sources.

Answer 8

According to the Green wing of the Morality Police, everything is bad for the environment. They are now worrying about environmentally friendly PENS. Soon flatulence will be outlawed. "You vill do vhat ve say, or else!!!"

Answer 9

The tannic acid used in the leather tanning process isn't.

Answer 10

Sorry I don't know please let me know if anyone has the answer. I just can't think of why it would be bad. Could be the processing chemicals get in the atomsphere therefore making it bad for the environment. Hope someone smart can give us the answer .

Answer 11

Yes, it is bad for the environment. Just as eating meat is. You may be asking how is eating meat bad for the environment? Read this http://www.meatout.org/global/