Category: Echology

Sustainability: is fashion on a turning point or is it (still) at a dead end?

Original content by: Lineapelle Magazine

Restarting from 42%. In other words, from the percentage  that, according to ICPEN (International Consumer Protection Enforcement Network) identifies the current green hypocrisy. That is, the fact that, online, more than 4 green slogans out of 10 “are exaggerated, false or deceitful”. Greenwashing, in one word. The occasion to take it one step further is offered by BoF (Business of Fashion), a reference portal for fashion and luxury. Unfortunately, this step does not take us much further. To the point that one question necessarily comes up: is fashion actually taking a turn, as far as 360 degrees green is concerned, or is it still at a dead end?

Turning point or dead alley?

BoF elaborates periodically a Sustainability Index. According to its latest edition, “while companies are discussing about sustainability more than ever, actions are delayed, compared with public commitments”. Much storytelling (sometimes close to propaganda), few concrete actions. “The total average score of evaluated companies was just 36 on 100, with a considerable difference between commitment and action”, BoF writes.

The relationship with suppliers

In the end, to really reach their green goals, brands need to make their production area cost-effective in a sustainable way. Which is, nevertheless, part of their universe under the “suppliers” item. With them, they should share long-term investments in technology and tools. But, BoF remarks, “suppliers complain about the fact that t18hey are often left alone, when the issue is paying for the investments. Instead of putting each season suppliers one against the other for prices, brands should establish solid partnerships, even if this could mean that the cost of production will get higher”. Luckily, it does not work like this for everyone. But that’s enough to prevent a real, determined, widespread sustainable turn from happening. And much too often, this is an unbalanced burden on the upper part of the production chain.

You can access the original post HERE

Alternatives to leather are not always what they seem

Original content by: One4Leather

You have probably heard of the term ‘Vegan Leather’. But what is it really? The name suggests that is derived from plant-based material but is it?

In fact, ‘vegan leather’ isn’t leather at all, nor is it always plant-based. It’s often a material made out polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyurethane (PU) and textile-polymer composite microfibers or other petroleum-based materials. In layman’s terms: plastics. Some newer alternatives are based on plant or fruit fibres, such as apples or pineapples. The traditional leather alternative materials are artificial and have been around for ages as ‘leather alternatives’, but do not possess the same properties as, nor can they be called leather, as the term is strictly defined according to ISO and other European standards as a tanned hide or skin with its original fibrous structure more or less intact.

‘Vegan’ implies ”free-from” any animal products, which makes naming a vegan material ‘leather’ misleading and even contradictory. This should, however, not be confused with ‘vegetable tanned’ leather, which refers to using tannins that originate from plants, such as the tannin in tree bark. Vegetable-tanned leather though is still genuine leather. Leather alternative materials certainly have achieved higher quality over the years, yet they have decidedly different structures and properties to genuine leather.

As an industry, we believe there is a clear difference between authentic leather and alternatives on various fronts, based on material properties. To illustrate the difference, when you do buy leather, you are choosing a material with the following characteristics:

  • Easy to clean (one of the main reasons why aviation and shared mobility are using it);
  • ‘Breathing’ properties (due to natural fiber structure of the skin);
  • Strength and durability (leather keeps its quality, year-in year-out);
  • Flexibility (leather becomes more and more flexible over time, while it still maintains its shape and strength)
  • Compostability, since leather products can be turned into compost in a matter of weeks as only 1% would remain, which is the surface treatment. This surface coating is the last challenge to make leather a 100% biodegradable material that leaves no footprint in our environment after use.

In the end, it is your choice to make: using or buying artificial material or the real deal. We just wanted to let you know what the difference is, as we believe that transparency is key in order to make a self-conscious decision in what you buy and use.

You can read the original post HERE

A project demonstrates the better biodegradability of leather compared to other materials

Original content by: Lederpiel

The A3 Leather Innovation Center of the University of Lleida has recently presented the results of a biodegradability project based on compostability. Commissioned by Leather Cluster Barcelona, ​​this initiative consisted of a scientific study to analyze the compostability of leather and other materials. The project concludes with scientific data that leather has a much greater degradation than synthetic and artificial alternatives that simulate hides. Furthermore, those responsible for the work confirm that materials that imitate leather have less resistance and permeability than leather.

The study aims to determine the differences at a physical and chemical level, as well as other thermometric properties, of seven different types of finished leather and three imitations of leather: a material of synthetic origin (commercially, imitation leather) and two alternatives based on raw materials of biological origin (pineapple and cactus) that try to imitate leather in the fashion industry (commercially, called “vegan leather”).

The work includes a complete physical and chemical characterization of the different materials under study, applying standardized methods of the leather sector on an international scale. Also included is a study of accelerated aging of the materials in a climatic chamber and their subsequent characterization, to determine what impact these extreme conditions have caused on the materials under study.

Once the composting process is completed, a leaching study of the different compounds is included with the aim of identifying the substances that the compounds release after experimentation.

Finally, a study of the volatile organic compound content of the ten samples under study is included. The objective is to determine if the different substrates contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs) of greater or lesser volatility, or of greater or lesser danger to the user.

Conclusions
One of the most relevant conclusions is that during the composting processes, while the different samples of natural leather analyzed present a total or partial degradation in a period of 21 to 35 days depending on the type of leather, the samples of alternative materials do not present any indication of degradation after 90 days of starting the compostability test.

Regarding physical properties, the alternative materials to leather studied show lower resistance and lower permeability, a fact that positions these materials with lower durability and well below the intrinsic qualities and properties of leather and for the uses to which they are intended. which is intended.

“The results of this project provide information and value to estimate with scientific rigor that leather of natural origin has much higher degradation rates than synthetic and artificial alternatives that want to imitate it,” say the scientists at A3 Leather Innovation Center.

Next steps
The biodegradability project will not end with the presentation of the study data, but both Leather Cluster Barcelona and A3 Leather Innovation Center UdL want to scale it up at the Jorba industrial composting facility in Barcelona.

With the scientific arguments derived from this project, Leather Cluster Barcelona wants to claim leather as an example of a circular economy and demand the correct use of the term leather only for those articles of natural origin. The term leather is used in many cases, but not always respecting the nature of its origin. Animal hides, used as a raw material to make consumer products, is a sustainable material with long durability and compostability. The leather tanning and finishing industry, as an agent of the circular economy, values ​​this resource by preventing it from becoming waste.

«Leather imitations, both synthetic materials mostly made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) or polyurethane (PU), as well as new fashion alternatives based on raw materials of organic origin from various industries, but produced with polymers derived from petroleum (the so-called vegan leather), are not biodegradable, recyclable or sustainable and will remain in landfills for centuries,” say those responsible for the project.

You can access the original article HERE