what is vegan leather?
Vegan leather, also known as artificial leather, synthetic leather, faux leather, PU leather, and pleather is a material used as a substitute for leather in many products with a leather-like finish. Instead of using animal skins, it is made from petroleum and plastics. The most commonly used are polyurethane (PU) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Made from fossil fuels using large amounts of water and energy to produce, these materials undergo intensive chemical processing to add color, texture, and protective coatings so they can look and feel like leather.
PVC and vinyl faux leather have extremely high levels of VOCs (volatile organic compounds). VOCs are often components of petroleum fuels, hydraulic fluids, paint thinners, and dry cleaning agents. VOCs are also used for the chemicals in the production of faux leather in solvents such as petrol, alcohol etc. People can have reactions to VOCs with symptoms of headaches, nausea, or fatigue.
PU stands for polyurethane which is a type of plastic. There are two types of PU leather; full-synthetic and semi-synthetic.
Semi-synthetic PU leather has an animal leather base with a dried PU plastic mixture on top. Full synthetic PU leather has a base fabric material such as polyester, cotton, nylon, or rayon with a plastic coating applied over the base fabric.
Full synthetic PU leather is marketed as vegan leather as there are no animal skins used. However, the environmental impact of PU leather is significant.
As these products end up in landfills, they break down, leaking the harmful chemicals back into the environment and polluting our natural resources; our soil, drinking water, and our food chain. PU leather takes over 500 years to decompose. Vinyl or PVC never decomposes.
In recent years, material innovation is on the rise, utilizing plants and fruits to create new forms of vegan leather, known as biomaterials.
