{"id":1120,"date":"2020-05-19T02:00:08","date_gmt":"2020-05-19T02:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.entre2retros.com\/blog\/en\/?p=1120"},"modified":"2020-12-07T19:26:07","modified_gmt":"2020-12-07T19:26:07","slug":"vegan-leather-a-100-green-alternative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/e2r-paris.com\/blog\/en\/vegan-leather-a-100-green-alternative\/","title":{"rendered":"Vegan leather: a 100% green alternative?"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
As you know, not everything in life is black or white. When it comes to the materials in your bags or clothes, the same applies.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Is a cowhide leather bag better than a vegan leather bag?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
What does better mean? According to which criteria: durability, \u00ab\u00a0recyclability\u00a0\u00bb or impact during its production? And what is vegan leather?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Like everything in life, a material can be appropriate for a certain use and better for the environment in one context, and not in another.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
So it’s not a question of banning one material to wear another on top, but it’s good to know what a material is, and what it involves, so that we can better understand why different leathers or textiles are used.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Here are a few things to help you understand the subject and we encourage you to learn more about brands’ ethical and environmental commitments to get a global view of their products.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Unfortunately, there is not one criterion but multiple criteria to evaluate the ecological impact of a material or a product.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
We have retained 3 main ones to be examined in the screen of materials below:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
-Manufacturing: how a product is made, from which materials, carbon impact of the materials composing it, carbon impact of the manufacturing itself, impact on wastewater…<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
-the durability of a product: will the finished material last over time or will it be thrown away after a few months? is it solid, is it durable, is it just a passing fad? can it be repaired?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
-its recyclability: at the end of a product’s life, can it be recycled or will it be thrown away and pollute the environment?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
We have been hearing for a few years now about so-called eco-responsible materials that are able to aesthetically imitate THE material that has been used and exploited for thousands of years: leather. This is the case of so-called \u00ab\u00a0vegan\u00a0\u00bb leather.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
What is behind this evocative and misleading name?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
The expression \u00ab\u00a0vegan leather\u00a0\u00bb is indeed misleading, since it includes alternatives to leather that do not come from animal skins.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
However, the term \u00ab\u00a0leather\u00a0\u00bb implies the use of animal skins: it is protected by a decree, Article 2 of which stipulates that \u00ab\u00a0the use of the word leather, either as a main or root or as an adjective […] is prohibited in the designation of any material other than that obtained from animal skins […]\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Vegan leather thus designates a leather-like material created from artificial products or plants. <\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n What you know as \u00ab\u00a0imitation leather\u00a0\u00bb is nothing but vegan leather. The same goes for leatherette, lorica, clarino or amara.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n These materials are plastic polymers such as polyurethane (PU) and Polyvinyl chlorite (PVC) which make it possible to reproduce a material similar to \u00ab\u00a0classic\u00a0\u00bb leather thanks to their wrinkled texture.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n In concrete terms, PU and PVC are made from petroleum. Who says oil, says oil extraction and its ecological impact, what about the impact of transformation into imitation leather on water and CO\u00b2 emissions?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n1. Synthetic materials<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
2. Natural materials<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n