what is vegan leather made of?
There are many types of 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) are derived from petroleum and plastics, these materials undergo intensive chemical processing to add color, texture, and protective coatings so they can look and feel like leather.
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 a 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.
There have been substantial advances in material innovation for sustainable vegan leather alternatives known as biomaterials. These include apple leather, pineapple leather, mycelium leather, plant leather, cactus leather and more.
