Why would you call something “plant based” when it uses a lot of plastic which after short time degrades and exposes it to the environment?
It’s almost as if another common term for vegan leather is PU Leather
Cause they know fools love buzzz words. That’s why I couldn’t find margarine until I realized it’s now “plant butter”
I think everything labeled “plant butter” is vegan, whereas “margarine” can contain both plant and animal fats. I don’t think that’s regulated, but I think that’s how those terms are used in practice. I always check the labels just to be sure, of course.
I thought the point of the stuff was to avoid killing animals.
Yeah I’ve had it with Will’s Vegan Shoes. They use https://www.viridis-leather.it/faq.html and say it’s “bio-based leather” but if you go to the link:
Is it recycled, recyclable or biodegradable?
No, it’s not but it expresses its sustainable content because it’s mainly produced using by-products from corn and wheat instead of petrolium based products. Bio polyols always available as renewable resources.
Which type of PU is Viridis® made of?
43 % of PU made using polyols coming from corn and wheat, 31 % of normal PU.
YSK: Cellulose can be made extremely durable and water resistent. The wallet I’ve been using for a decade now is made of cellulose. The stitching was kinda bad from the start, so I’ve had to repair it once. But the material itself is still holding stong. And it feels nice and is very grippy.
“TreeLeather” or something like that, was 1 brand of the cellulose “leather” stuff…
_ /\ _
I do hobby-level leatherworking and I’m all here for real non-animal leathers but yeah, basically all of them, cactus, mango, pineapple leaf etc. all just get put on a PU backing…
I got excited for cork leather at one point but turns out that is also either PU backed or fabric backed (which is better but doesn’t really work as a direct replacement for leather, especially structurally).
There are a few I’m more excited for and I would love to get hold of but they still seem either experimental or used directly by the makers for their own finished products. Most are fungus based, so one is SCOBY leather, basically the big blob of microorganisms used to make kombucha can be grown in big flat sheets, dried and treated to make a leathery material but I’ve not seen many applications of it yet…
But mushroom/mycelial leather is the one I’m most hopeful for. Not only do some of them look like real leather but the random ‘grain’ of the mycelium has the potential to ape the natural fibrous grain of leather that gives it its strength. That is the one I’m really excited for.
That was interesting AF, actually. I’m hyped for shroom leather!
i was gonna say “what about pineapple leather” but yeah nope, it’s got PLA in it…
No hate, but leather and pb leather is gross to us idk how people like it. The texture is eugh
But… Isn’t actual leather plant based?
Cow eats grass. Cow grows from eating grass. Cow ded. Make leather from cow.
From grass to cow to leather. Leather is made of grass. Leather is plant based.
You’re right, and that’s why I only eat plant based meat, like chicken and cow.
are you taking the piss or being serious?
obvious troll is obvious lol
He forgot the part where grass is grown on soil made of decomposed cow, making grass a meat-based product.
Ah! Right! Leather is even 100% recycled. I’m sure very few things can claim to be 100% recycled.
Because it is made from plant based materials? Like some LEGO parts are nowadays made from plant based materials.
Plants -> Ethanol -> Plastic
Polyurethane is made by (among other steps) mixing paint thinner and phosgene gas. It’s a nasty dangerous process.
The only time plants are involved is when they mix in some fiber pulp at the end.
Plant based plastics exist, but they are not polyurethane.
I can’t stress enough how much heavy lifting the phrase “among other steps” is doing here.
I would assume that if polyurethane is marketed as plant based it would actually need to be made from vegetable oils instead of fossil fuels no? Would be false advertising otherwise
Where do you think fossil fuels come from?
I don’t really understand all the hate/cynicism towards vegan leather. Like yeah obviously plastic is bad for the environment, but raising cows and dumping thousands of tons of chromium into rural waterways for the tanning process aren’t good either. Leather is actually far worse for the environment by some metrics.
Plus there’s the fact that most leather is sealed with plastic/acrylic to increase its longevity anyway, unless you’re buying something wicked expensive.
It must be pretty hard to understand if you don’t think about it too hard.
Plastic is just as bad for the environment, not to mention people’s health, as those cows.
You clearly haven’t chugged chromium water
Chromium-based tanning is only 1 kind of tanning, but yeah, chromium’s one of those chemicals which needs to be limited more-carefully, among our ecologies.
Vegetable-based tanning also exists, & I’m no expert, so there could be multiple way I don’t know about.
_ /\ _
Look up where plastic comes from.
Trees
+ millions of years
Oil doesn’t come from wood, right?
correct, iirc it’s from absurd quantities of cyanobacteria in the oceans around when life got started.
Trees turned into coal, specifically trees from before fungi had evolved to decompose the wood, so it was able to just accumulate.
Vegan leather is what they call plastic imitation leather nowadays
And it’s fucking terrible compared to real leather. It’ll start flaking or cracking after a year, it’s fucking dangerous around fire, it offers no fucking insulation or protection, it’s shit.
A lot of novice fire performers will grab it thinking it’s the same as real leather, and we always have to pull them aside and give em a talk
I had a pair of boots that I used 9 months a year in Swedish climate for roughly 10 years without a hitch. They also went for hikes in Costa Rica and across India and Nepal. At the end they looked worn but were still functional as I swapped them out for another pair of vegan leather boots.
I’ve had other vegan shoes that lasted a lot shorter but that can be said about my animal skin shoes as well.
Modern bio-leather causes about 10% off the emissions leather does and doesn’t have the same tanning process which is extremely toxic.
Not saying that vegan is strictly better, but rumours of it’s crappiness are severely out of date.
Ive had it in my car for 7 years and zero flaking and feels great. Thats definitely specific to the quality you have.
I recall the term being pleather. Plastic leather.
Technically if they are organic matter compressed over eons into polycarbons, they’re still dinosaurs, so not vegan
Well a lot of it turns out to be dead trees not dinosaurs, but I’m sure I’ll get “um actually” but someone who is a bigger expert
Coal is from trees. Oil is from bacterial mats.
“Well. There it is.”
as opposed to…dead cow skin?
I guess. Dead cow skin uses very little polyurethane
As long as there is meat consumption there will be dead skin. I am open for all kind of alternatives but plastic none for me. Also real leather can be tanned in a bad way. So its a difficult topic in general.
Not if the meat is grown. But skin could also be grown, I think.
I hadnt thought of that:
good point!
Not that anybody’ll actually do it, but it could be done.
_ /\ _
Veg tanning is a thing too, growing in popularity and better for artisanal work.
They don’t live long without skin.
It would be cruel to use the skin of a live cow.
