Sustainable Leather?

[versus21]

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!

[TexasJack]

Leather is, by definition, a "sustainable" resource, as it is naturally grown. When it eventually decays, it consists of organic material and returns to the natural environment.

Most leather used for the crafts on here is "veg tan". World-wide, about 80% is chrome tanned, simply because the process is much, much faster. Chrome tanning can be very damaging to the environment, but it doesn't have to be. I know of at least one battery recycler that will take chrome-containing waters and use them in a recycling process that recovers the chrome (for making stainless steel).

There are some folks that supply leather that has not been obtained from killing an animal for meat. It's generally expensive. For those of us not sensitive to the consumption of meat, leather is a necessary by-product of the process and anything that puts that to use instead of creating a waste for disposal is a good thing.

[Colt W Knight]

Cattle were domesticated over 10,000 years ago, so I would say we have been doing a good with sustainability.

[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.

[thefanninator]

Read the book Deerskins to Buckskins - you can brain tan your own leather. But you'll have to harvest a deer or get the hide from a hunter.

[inkii]

Can't speak to the tannery part. As far as sustainable / eco-friendly products once it reaches the crafter (dyes, etc), there's a brand called Eco-Flo which markets itself as more environmentally friendly that might be worth looking into if you're marketing your products on the basis of sustainability or low-impact products.

[johnv474]

I would say that veg tan leather is easier to be done sustainably, but chrome-tanning is not a disqualifier.

For jewelry purposes, repurposing scrap leather and leftovers from manufacturing would certainly be one approach. Scrap is cheaper, to boot.

This site will tell you how particular tanneries are rated for responsible: http://www.leatherworkinggroup.com/tanneries.htm

[cgleathercraft]

Leather has been spoken for a couple times already so i'll skip it.

As for glues, dyes, stains or any other product required for working with leather you might be able to find recipe's to make your own dyes. there are a few on here who make dye with walnut hulls (not me, yet) for various shades of brown and use vinegaroon for black (works very well and cheap to make).

hope this helps!

[Tesla Ranger]

Tanning has always been a messy business though on the industrial scale it has the potential to be more or less a wash. The biggest problem with vegetable tanning is that it requires a large amount of oak and hemlock trees. Those trees take a long time to grow so they tend to be cut down faster than they can regrow. Chrome tanning is much faster and economical but whether or not it's damaging to the enviroment depends on the practices of the tannery. If they're using one type of Chromium and handling it properly it's fairly safe but another type of Chromium can be very damaging to the enviroment. This isn't usually a problem in North America or Europe but has resulted in some nastiness in India.

Like anything that has to do with the enviroment, the real answer is a bit complicated. There's a few papers on the topic though I've only gotten to read one of them. The general impression seems to be that assuming the tannery is using best practices then Chromium is the least damaging to the enviroment. It still takes a whack of energy and water so it's hard to say if it's truly sustainable without considering where that energy and water are coming from.