Is Fake Leather Truly Better?
Over the last decade, the words “vegan leather” and “plastic-free” have blown up in popularity and been turned into a kind of marketing code for being ethical or eco-friendly. People see the label “vegan” and assume it automatically means better for the planet. The idea makes sense on paper, but it’s not that simple. Materials shouldn’t just be judged by the words printed on a tag, but by what happens across their entire life, how they’re made, used, and disposed of. When that’s actually looked at properly, the case for real leather and responsibly made wool becomes more complicated. In a lot of cases, natural animal fibres end up being more durable, less polluting in the long run, and sometimes even the more ethical choice when things like waste and animal welfare are taken into account.
The popular contrast is really quite simple. Animal product equals cruel and dirty, plastic and synthetic product equals kind and clean. However, the story behind these materials gets messier the deeper one looks into their production. Synthetic leathers, typically polyvinyl chloride, more commonly referred to as PVC, or polyurethane, also known as PU, are not only derived from fossil fuels, but they also shed microplastics as they age, and are difficult to recycle. Unfortunately, they also don't make up in quality what they lack in sustainability either. False leathers and fibers often tend to flake and peel, and are replaced quickly, thus feeding the cycle of fast fashion and landfill. Recent environmental analyses show that these plastic-based faux leather items release polluting plastic fragments and may even carry toxic residues from manufacture and weathering. All in all they are not the deceptively green solution to animal products as many may assume.
Real leather obviously has its own problems. Leather’s environmental footprint is inseparable from industrial meat production, and that is an uncomfortable truth to boot. However, facts matter and the vast majority of hides in global leather production are derived from animals already being processed for food, making leather in many supply chains effectively a use of what would otherwise be waste. In most cases, the leather industry isn’t killing animals for leather, and the hides themselves make up a small chunk of the animal’s market value. Knowing that, treating them as a co-product instead of the main reason for slaughter changes how the impact looks. In that sense, leather becomes more like recycling a by-product instead of throwing it away.
Genuine leather production isn’t always some industrial machine churning out designer handbags either. In a lot of places, it’s still personal, a trade that keeps small families afloat. When I studied in Florence, a friend and I stopped into a small leather shop, by the name of Pelletteria Artigiana Viviani, tucked between two narrow streets, run by a family who had been making bags and small leather goods for three generations. Every step was done in-house, cutting, dyeing, stitching, polishing, with techniques passed down like heirlooms. The smell of the tannins and dye drifted into the air outside. It wasn’t glamorous, but it was steady.
We spoke to them as they made a bag for me, and asked about their business and their history. The owner explained that for them, leather wasn’t just a product, it was survival. The income from that single shop paid for rent, school, and food. The materials came from local Tuscan tanneries, often using hides that would have otherwise gone to waste from nearby farms. When conversations around “vegan leather” or “cruelty-free fashion” come up, small producers like them are often left out. They aren’t running factory farms or polluting rivers for fast fashion. They’re using what already exists and turning it into something that lasts decades. The moral debate happening online about animal products versus synthetics doesn’t land the same way when it’s about someone’s family trade.
For families like that one in Florence, the idea of completely removing leather from fashion isn’t just an ethical discussion, it’s a potential loss of culture and livelihood. Leatherwork there is a tradition that’s older than most modern industries. Generations have built their lives around it. It’s a skill that takes years to learn, and it’s disappearing under the pressure of mass production and changing consumer trends. When people talk about sustainability, they tend to focus on materials and emissions, but rarely on what happens to the workers and craftspeople when those industries collapse. Ethical consumption isn’t just about what something is made of, it’s about who made it, how they live, and what gets lost when their work disappears.
By Pelletteria Artigiana Viviani
Of course, that doesn’t make it perfect either. Tanning uses a ton of water and chemicals, and chrome tanning in particular has an, unfortunately, pretty nasty environmental track record. The way an animal is raised also matters a lot. Some life-cycle studies show leather doing badly in categories like greenhouse gas emissions and water use, but doing better in durability and biodegradability. It depends heavily on the context. Blanket statements like “natural is bad and synthetic is good” don’t actually hold up when the full process is considered.
In reality it's the thinking about leather as an ethical material that means focusing on how long it lasts and where it comes from. A well-made leather jacket or pair of boots can last decades, which spreads out its environmental cost way better than a plastic one that breaks down in one to two years. Vegetable-tanned or small-scale leathers from regenerative farms aren’t the same thing as cheap mass-produced ones either. And if an animal is already part of the food system, using its hide for something long-lasting is at least better than throwing it in a landfill. That said, using leather responsibly also means not pretending it erases the bigger climate problems tied to industrial farming. It’s about making the most of what’s already there, not using it as an excuse.
By Leather and Hide Council of America
Wool sits in a similar spot. Some people see it as natural and wholesome, others as inherently cruel. The truth is that most sheep today literally depend on being shorn, they’ve been bred to grow more fleece than they can handle. Most don't realise that not shearing them isn’t a kindness. It’s dangerous. Overgrown fleece leads to overheating, parasite problems, and flystrike, a condition that’s as gross as it sounds, where flies lay eggs in the wool and maggots start eating the sheep alive. Responsible shearing is an act of care, not cruelty.
Of course, that doesn’t mean every wool producer is perfect either. There are legitimate issues like rough handling, bad transport conditions, and painful procedures such as mulesing. Those things need to be addressed and improved, not ignored. But that doesn’t mean wool as a material is inherently unethical. Systems that follow certified welfare standards or come from small farms that prioritise low-stress shearing and proper breeding practices can produce wool that’s sustainable, humane, and actually useful. Wool is natural, biodegradable, and lasts years longer than most synthetic sweaters.
End-of-life matters too. Faux leathers don’t break down, they just sit in landfills or burn into toxins. Natural materials like wool and untreated or vegetable-tanned leather actually decompose, though some kinds of tanned leather take longer. They still don’t turn into permanent waste like plastics do. None of this means animal fibres are perfect, but at least they end in soil, not microplastic dust in the ocean. The last thing anyone wants is to buy a product thinking they’re saving one animal, only to discard it a few years later, killing other animals at a much larger scale.
By Muntaka Chasant/REX/Shutterstock
Buying better isn’t about moral perfection. It’s about being realistic. Long-lasting materials are almost always better than disposable ones. Traceability matters, knowing where the hide or fleece came from, what kind of system it was raised in, and how it was processed. Vegetable tanning, solvent-free glues, and welfare certifications all make a difference. Repairing and reusing matter just as much. The goal shouldn’t be to find the purest or trendiest option, but the one that lasts the longest and wastes the least.
Innovation still has a place in this. There are new materials made from pineapples, mushrooms, apples, and lab-grown collagen that are showing promise, but they’re still in testing stages. Some might actually beat leather on certain impacts, others might not hold up over time. The future probably won’t be one material replacing another. It’ll be a mix, some natural, some plant-based, all made to last longer and waste less.
In the end, buying the cheapest “vegan leather” bag because it sounds moral isn’t going to save the planet. Real ethics comes from using what already exists responsibly and keeping it out of landfills. If animals are already part of the food system, turning hides and wool into durable goods is a better outcome than pretending plastic is guilt-free. The point isn’t to stop questioning the meat or fashion industries, it’s to be honest about which materials actually do less harm in the long run.
- Blanchard, T. (2023, November 22). “we are creating a material monster”: The false logic of faux leather. The Guardian. www.theguardian.com/…
- The connection between Leather & The Meat Industry. Leather Naturally. (2023, April 19). www.leathernaturally.org/…
- GÜNDOGAN, P. (n.d.). Life-Cycle Assessment of Leather and Leather-Like Materials. KTH Royal Institute of Technology.
- Infographic V2. Leather and Hide Council of America. (n.d.). www.usleather.org/…
- Kotze AC, James PJ. Control of sheep flystrike: what's been tried in the past and where to from here. Aust Vet J. 2022 Jan;100(1-2):1-19. doi: 10.1111/avj.13131. Epub 2021 Nov 10. PMID: 34761372; PMCID: PMC9299489.
- S, P. (2019, September 26). In photos: PETA and Peta France protest against leather at fashion weeks across Europe. PETA. www.peta.org.uk/…
- Shi, Y., Huang, H., Zheng, L., Tian, Y., Gong, Z., Wang, J., Li, W., & Gao, S. (2023). Releases of microplastics and chemicals from nonwoven polyester fabric-based polyurethane synthetic leather by photoaging. Science of The Total Environment, 902, 166584. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.166584
- Storia. Pelletteria Artigiana Viviani. (n.d.). www.pelletteriaartigiana.com/storia
- Wicker, A. (2024, January 10). Is leather truly a byproduct of the meat industry?. Ecocult®. www.ecocult.com/…
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