this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2025
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French Car Brand Renault To Go Completely Leather-Free By The End Of 2025 (plantbasednews.org)
submitted 1 week ago by Sunshine@lemmy.ca to c/buyeuropean@feddit.uk
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[โ€“] Ek-Hou-Van-Braai@piefed.social 26 points 1 week ago (18 children)

Hmmm this feels like green washing to cut costs.

Isn't leather mostly a byproduct? Leather boots and car seats can last decades, which could reduce waste.

What are the alternatives and what are they made or? Afik the alternatives are usually petroleum based don't last as long and introduce micro plastics

Would like to see a proper study on the alternatives and their long term impacts compared.

[โ€“] Sunshine@lemmy.ca 25 points 1 week ago (6 children)

Despite its reputation, leather is definitively not a byproduct. The modern leather industry does not reduce the waste of animal agriculture, it collaborates in it. Leather is best viewed as a coproduct, meaning that the two industries are distinct, but inextricably linked.

The global leather goods market is gigantic, and Grand View Research predicts it will reach USD $405.28 billion by 2030, up from $242.85 billion in 2022. In 2020, global production reached 12.5 million tonnes and included the skin of over 1.4 billion animals. (Thatโ€™s nearly 20 percent of the entire human population at the time killed within a single year.)

Apart from the staggering inherent environmental footprint of raising cattle, turning hides into leather itself has a significant impact. So significant, in fact, that Collective Fashion Justice believes turning hides into products creates more CO2e emissions โ€“ about 110kg per square meter โ€“ than simply putting them straight into landfill. (Which is very likely where the product will end up rotting and producing emissions eventually, anyway.)

Itโ€™s also not just cows that are used to produce leather. Hides from sheeps*, lambs, goats, and pigs are also frequently used, while animals such as crocodiles, alligators, snakes, kangaroos, zebras, elephants, and more โ€“ including rare, endangered, and keystone species โ€“ are hunted specifically for their skins, frequently for luxury accessories by high-end brands.

Fashion designer and vegan icon Stella McCartney, who uses plant-based alternatives to leather in her various products, previously told Plant Based News (PBN) that the idea of leather was a byproduct was โ€œsheer nonsense.โ€ She added: โ€œIโ€™m here to let people know thatโ€™s a lie thatโ€™s been created by the meat industry and leather boards.โ€

https://plantbasednews.org/news/environment/the-problem-with-leather-cruel/

[โ€“] skarn@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The global leather goods market is gigantic, and Grand View Research predicts it will reach USD $405.28 billion by 2030, up from $242.85 billion in 2022.

I have generally rather mixed feelings about leather, but that seems like a ridiculous number to use as a reference. As far as I can tell it's the total price of the sold goods?

Which includes lots of stuff that has nothing to do with the leather...

Luis Vuitton is going to be raking in millions whether it uses leather or it switches to hemp or whatever. They're selling prestige and brand, not real products.

(In the current political climate "going woke" by cutting leather would probably backfire in terms of image... But if they silently switched from leather to plastic noone would notice given the quality of their leathers)

[โ€“] Sunshine@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

There's always cloth seats car manufacturers can use instead.

[โ€“] skarn@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I don't ever want leather seats in my car but your answer seems... Unrelated to my comment?

[โ€“] Sunshine@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 week ago

Itโ€™s related to how you may want to avoid plasticโ€ฆ

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