Is it Leather? Writes on LinkedIn : The leather industry has such a fantastic story. Every key point of this fabulous natural material rings true and is backable by simple straightforward facts. One of the positive aspects of real leather that doesn’t see much “airtime” is that utilizing real leather actually REDUCES waste!

Think about it – as a byproduct of the meat industry there are millions of tons of hides produced annually. If we don’t fully utilize the animal then the leftover hides are dumped into landfills and create waste as it degrades back into the earth over time.

And then the multiplier effect begins to come into play: if we don’t use the available hides for leather in favor of fake alternatives, we begin a nasty cycle of “creating” new materials that aren’t needed – generating all the negative environmental waste of the fake leather production cycle as well as the inevitable dumping of fake leather into landfills (where it never degrades) in addition to the unused hides…essentially doubling, if not tripling, our waste.

Leather is a premier example of a circular solution that reduces our impact on the environment. We repurpose waste from the beef industry and turn it into durable goods. We remove the need for the creation of fake plastic alternative waste being added to our environment and ensure that our natural resources are being fully utilized. Leather products last 3-5 times longer than fake alternatives, and when returned to the earth decomposes over time. It is such a beautiful, complete and responsible process, it’s hard to believe that it’s not widely celebrated. But alas, the activist-generated disinformation has got its grips on real leather. We have to continue to promote the truth and describe this beautiful circularity to all that can hear. Keep it simple and repeat after me:

1. Cows are NEVER killed for their hides
2. Leather is more sustainable and durable than fake alternatives
3. “Vegan” leather is usually plastic and creates long-term pollution

These are the truths that we have to keep repeating in order to drown out the falsehoods that are hurting our entire industry. If everyone is concerned about waste – they should know using leather is a great way to reduce it!