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Alternative materials cannot denigrate the image of leather while mimicking its properties

2021-09-16

The European Federation of Tannery Associations (COANCE), the International Tannery Committee (ICT), the Natural Leather Fund, the International Leather Trade Association (ICHSLTA) and the American Leather Trade Association (Skins and Leather Traders' Associations) represent the world's leather industry on leather The promotion of alternative materials to replace leather issued a joint statement stating the following:

At present, more and more new materials are used in the fields of fashion, design, and automotive interiors and interior decoration as alternatives to leather materials. The basis for the use of alternative materials is the so-called sustainable development.

The pursuit of sustainable development is very necessary. Leather is a durable, biodegradable material made from renewable by-products produced by other industries. It is unfounded to regard it as an unsustainable material. Especially when compared with emerging materials that are mainly made from petrochemicals.

Globally, the tanning industry purchases at least 8 million tons of raw hides from the food industry every year and processes them into leather materials. If there is no processing and production in the leather industry, 8 million tons of hides will become garbage and be landfilled or incinerated. Destroying rather than using these hides will generate approximately 5 million tons of greenhouse gases. Therefore, the recovery and recycling of hides in the leather industry reduces greenhouse gas emissions while creating a valuable and versatile product.

Recently, the German FILK Institute conducted a comparative analysis of 8 new alternative materials and shoe upper leather, and the results showed that the performance of these new materials and leather has almost nothing in common. For most of the relevant functional parameters, leather is far superior to alternatives, and no alternative can be compared with leather.

In addition, in order to try to achieve the effect of leather, these new materials use a large number of synthetic materials (such as polyurethane). The manufacturing process has a huge impact on the environment and its sustainability is questioned.
PU Leather

The pursuit of synthetic alternative materials is largely driven by fashion marketing, new products and the pursuit of sustainability. However, it is counterintuitive to substitute synthetic materials for durable, biodegradable materials such as leather. It cannot be denied that leather manufacturing provides an ideal solution for waste recycling.

The market provides enough space for different material choices. However, the leather industry cannot tolerate those substitutes that imitate the properties of leather while slandering the image of leather while promoting its so-called sustainability.

--Alternative Materials cannot denigrate the image of leather while mimicking its properties

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