Is real leather environmentally friendly?

Content posted by: Leather Naturally.

Leather Naturally published an article asking “Is leather environmentally friendly?”. The simple answer is «yes». Leather is a highly versatile, widely used material and there are a number of elements in its manufacture that contribute to its environmental credentials.

Leather as a raw material is renewable, and in products it is long-lasting and repairable. It is made from a by-product of the food industry. If this by-product were not converted into leather, it would be thrown into a landfill, a significant environmental risk.

Leather can be repaired, refurbished and re-purposed but it has also been recycled for well over 70 years into leather fibre board, a material used in footwear, or sometimes as ground up trimmings for stuffing boxing punch bags. A lot of R&D is currently ongoing to expand the applications for leather recycling. Leather is made from a by-product of the food industry. If this by-product were not converted into leather, it would be thrown into a landfill, a significant environmental risk.

And as a natural product, leather will biodegrade in a typical landfill in 10 to 50 years, depending on the type of leather. A typical Polyvinyl Chloride plastic material takes 500+ years to break down in the same environment.

You can read the original content HERE.

Cosmetics and fertilizers from leftover hair of leather tanning

Content posted by: LEDERPIEL.

The hair left over from the leather tanning process can be used as raw material in the manufacture of cosmetics and fertilizers. This is demonstrated by an investigation by the research group of the Igualada University Campus-UdL A3 Leather Innovation Center, focused on the use of a problematic residue for the tanning industry such as hair.

The use of the residue has been made from the extraction of its protein in order to obtain keratin products that represent an added value for other industries, such as cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. This protein thus becomes raw material to make, for example, face and hair creams, plant fertilizers and can even be used as a supplement in animal feed.

Several companies in the cosmetic and fertilizer sector have already been interested in the product and it is expected that it can be commercialized shortly.

You can read the original article HERE.