versus21

Thank you both for your replies! I'm not worried about the "hide" part (I definitely agree that putting the whole cow to use is much better than throwing it away--especially with the meat industry. I have no problems with that). I was more concerned about the chemicals used to process the leather. I know that some places, especially some outside the US where regulations aren't as strict, can create a large amount of pollution in processing leather.

I'm a total leather newbie... And I'm new to the forums. So, hi! I worked with leather at a camp I used to go to as a child and I LOVED it. Now I'm running a small hand-made jewelry business, and I am considering incorporating leather into my creations. I would like to learn how to work with it again since I have so many fond memories as a child. My business is geared toward sustainable jewelry, and so I was wondering if there were any sustainable/organic/green/eco friendly/whatever leather suppliers that you guys know of. I've done a ton of research into this subject in the past few months and I've seen a lot of mixed information. Some say vegetable tanning is better, others say it's not, some say it depends on the individual tanner's process...Some say to buy from the USA/Europe and not China/India/Mexico because of the regulations... So, can you help me out a bit? I'm not experienced at all with this Thanks!