Let’s Settle It: Is Faux Leather Better Or Worse For The Environment?

According to the UK Fashion and Sustainability Market Report by Mintel, 57% of Brits see sustainability as important for fashion. Sustainability has risen in importance in 2024, following a drop in interest in 2023 as incomes were squeezed. 

Additionally, Mintel says: “There is scope to leverage the power of eco-influencers to steer them towards more ethical and environmentally conscious shopping habits.”

As we gear towards more sustainable, eco-friendly options, the option for faux or ‘vegan’ leather might seem alluring but, according to experts, we shouldn’t hurry to cash in on this leather alternative.

Is vegan leather good for the environment?

Unfortunately, as ideal as this solution sounds, vegan leather is all-too-often something that sounds, and is, too good to be true. Most mainstream vegan leathers are largely made from polyurethane leather (PU leather) which is not sustainable or even biodegradable. 

Speaking to Popular Science, Tanja Hester, environmental activist, writer, and the author of Wallet Activism says that the idea of “vegan leather” is just greenwashing.

“It’s truly just plastic, which is rarely recycled and in vegan leather form it’s impossible to recycle—there’s essentially no sustainable vegan leather.”

Instead, she recommends looking for second-hand leather if you’re hoping for more sustainable, eco-friendly option. She added that these long-lasting products do more for the environment than cheap vegan leathers which will stay in landfill for centuries.

Speaking to The Washington Post, Huantian Cao, professor and chair of fashion and apparel studies at the University of Delaware agrees that the plastics found in faux leather can be harmful.

Cao says: “The entire life cycle of this material has a very bad environmental impact,

“Production, use and disposal of PVC can release toxic chlorine-based chemicals, and the plastic is one of the world’s largest sources of dioxin, a harmful pollutant that persists in the environment and can accumulate in the food chain.”

Cao did reassure that companies are experimenting with plant-based alternatives to leather, including materials made from mushroom or cactus, as well as fruits such as pineapple, so there is hope for the future of leather alternatives.