The sad reality of the Leather Industry
Hello Gorgeous,
Thank you for joining me to reflect on the sad topic of the leather industry today.
Even though the horrors of the leather industry are no news to me, researching credible sources and images for this article just broke my heart over and over again.
I avoid showing you too many graphic images in this article, but I include some links in case you want to read more.
In this post, I speak about :
The scope of the leather industry
Leather as a co-product rather than a bi-product of the meat industry
The negative impact of the leather industry on people, animals and the planet
If not otherwise referenced, the information in this post is based on in-depth research carried out by Collective Fashion Justice, who published a series of reports on the impact of the leather industry on animals, people and the planet called “Under their Skin” in 2022, and various reports by PETA (People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals).
The scope of the leather industry
In numbers
The global leather goods market was valued at $394 billion USD in 2020.
553 million sheep, 493 million goats, and 371 million cattle hides are turned into leather annually.
Approximately 110 kg of CO2 are emissioned for one square metre of leather (after slaughter).
Over 90% of leather is tanned with chromium, a highly toxic heavy metal.
As much as 300 – 400 million tons of heavy metals, solvents, toxic sludges and other waste in the form of discharged tannery wastes are dumped into water bodies yearly. This equals about 200 million cars.
As little as 150 kg out of 1,000 kg of raw cow hides are actually generated into finished leather, while the remaining 850 kg are dumped.
It is estimated that 12,370 litres of water are needed to produce one pair of leather boots. This equals the drinking water for one person for 16 years.
50% higher rates of cancer were reported among tannery workers compared to the average population.
Mental health issues and post-traumatic stress syndrome are up to 5 times higher in slaughterhouse workers compared to the average population.
What is most important to understand about the leather industry is that leather is often untraceable, meaning that the label of origin of your product only states where the end product was produced but not where the leather was sourced.
As Lucy Siegle wrote in the Guardian in 2019, “If all the shoes professing Italian heritage really were from Italian cattle, cows would drink from the Trevi fountain and chew the cud in Piazza San Marco.”
While the conditions in European factory farms, slaughterhouses and tanneries are not necessarily better, it is essential to remember that the biggest leather exporters are China, India and Brazil, where regulations on working conditions, animal welfare, and pollution are often severely lacking.
A co-product much rather than a bi-product of the meat industry
Animal hides before tanning. Image retrieved from Collective Fashion Justice.
Against popular belief, leather is not a mere by-product but a co-product of the meat industry. This means that leather is not a waste product but the hides of slaughtered animals significantly contribute to the income of slaughterhouses and, therefore, subsidise the meat industry.
According to Collective Fashion Justice, leather can account for up to 26% of slaughterhouse earnings worldwide. This means that the price of meat would significantly rise should the demand for hides decrease, which would inevitably reduce meat consumption.
In addition to that, some animals are solely raised and killed for their skins. This is true not only for exotic animals but also for calves who are farmed for their soft skin.
What does this mean for people?
People are involved all along the leather production chain, from where the cows are bred to slaughterhouses, tanneries, and cloths and shoe factories. Again, the lack of traceability of hides makes monitoring working conditions along this chain almost impossible.
Research by Collective Fashion Justice (2022) has found that “leather tannery workers face disproportionately high rates of cancer due to their work, slaughterhouse workers are more likely to battle with a mental illness similar to PTSD and people working on cattle ranches in leading bovine skin production countries like Brazil are known to be trapped in a system of forced labour.”
The mental implications of working in a slaughterhouse
“One skill that you master while working at an abattoir (slaughterhouse) is disassociation. You learn to become numb to death and to suffering. Instead of thinking about cows as entire beings, you separate them into their saleable, edible body parts. It doesn't just make the job easier - it's necessary for survival.
There are things, though, that have the power to shatter the numbness. For me, it was the heads.
At the end of the slaughter line there was a huge skip, and it was filled with hundreds of cows' heads. Each one of them had been flayed, with all of the saleable flesh removed. But one thing was still attached - their eyeballs.
Whenever I walked past that skip, I couldn't help but feel like I had hundreds of pairs of eyes watching me. Some of them were accusing, knowing that I'd participated in their deaths. Others seemed to be pleading, as if there were some way I could go back in time and save them. It was disgusting, terrifying and heart-breaking, all at the same time. It made me feel guilty. The first time I saw those heads, it took all of my strength not to vomit.
Exposure to dangerous chemicals and exploitation in tanneries
The conditions in tanneries have been found to be extremely dangerous due to high exposure to toxic chemicals and exploitation of workers around the world. The chemicals used in conventional tanning can cause chronic coughing, skin ailments, and cancer in those exposed. Reports by the Pulitzer Center have shown children working in tanneries in India and Bangladesh without protective gear in highly toxic environments.
European tanneries are not immune to exploitation either. The new Model Centre Development Association and the Clean Clothes Campaign drafted a report based on interviews and field research in one of the leading Italian tannery districts, Santa Croce, where at the time of reporting 240 tanneries and 500 contractors together employed 12,700 people. The report found that over 48% of inspected facilities used illegal practices, with 53% of workers unregistered.
Collective Fashion Justice found that tannery certification labels largely ignored the well-being of workers as they focused on monitoring the use of chemicals in the tanning process but didn't do social auditing.
Affecting communities
Toxic wastewater from tanneries poses a severe threat to its workers and the communities surrounding them. In Kanpur, India, for instance, an estimated 50 million litres of toxic tannery wastewater is generated by tanneries across the state daily. Old infrastructure designed to manage the output of far fewer tanneries than exist today cannot handle so much wastewater, with just 9 million litres being processed. As a result, it is suggested that nearly 40 million litres of untreated wastewater (about 140’000 bathtubs), full of carcinogenic substances like chromium and formaldehyde, is dumped into the Ganga River (or Ganges) each day. This has a horrific impact on communities and ecosystems along the river.
Tannery workers. Image retrieved from Collective Fashion Justice.
You can read the full report of Collective Fashion Justice on the impact of the leather industry on people here.
What does this mean for animals?
Cattle transport to a slaughterhouse in India, image by Peter Bengtsen and DanWatch retrieved from the Ecologist.
Looking at leather, people often forget that it stems from a living being that is fully conscious of the horrors it is going through.
In 2012, the Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness reaffirmed that cattle display many emotions, including boldness, shyness, sociability, friendliness, and temperament. They are herd animals and form strong social bonds, enjoy play, are aware of their actions and consequences, and can evaluate others and react to situations that cause them fear, nervousness and discomfort.
PETA reporters have uncovered countless cases of abuse against animals along the chain of the leather industry. In the absence of animal welfare laws in most leather-producing countries, the abuse of animals starts from the day they are born. This includes branding, castration, tail docking, nose piercing (all without anaesthesia), overcrowded stables confining the animals and forcing them to stand and sleep in their excrements, causing foot infections and lung problems, to name only a few.
When the day of slaughter has come, animals suffer during long transports in cramped trucks, trains or boats without food and water for several days. Such practices have been documented in countries across the globe, including the US and Europe. In India, reporters have uncovered how the animals were forced to reach the slaughterhouses on foot during long marches until they collapsed from exhaustion. Numerous PETA reports show voluntary ill-treatment, including mutilation, to force exhausted animals to move to slaughterhouses.
Once they arrive, the exhausted and terrified animals are faced with the horror of witnessing the slaughter of other animals before their very eyes before they are being subjected to (often) cruel slaughter methods themselves.
You can read more on the impact of the leather industry on animals here.
What does this mean for the planet?
I am sure that after everything you read, it is no surprise that the leather industry causes severe harm to the planet in many different ways.
Greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation
Deforestation for cattle farming in Brazil. Image retrieved from Bloomberg.
At least 20% of global emissions are made up of methane, a greenhouse gas estimated to be more than 80 times more potent than carbon. Methane has contributed 0.5 °C of the 1.1 °C of warming since the 19th century. The FAO has shared data showing that 16.5% of all greenhouse gas emissions are from animal agriculture, more than the exhaust from all global transport – planes, cars and trains included. In fact, 62% of direct emissions in the sector are tied to cattle rearing, with further emissions due to the rearing of buffalo, which are also reared and ultimately skinned for leather.
The report highlights a middle-range estimate of 110 kg of CO2 emissions for one square metre of leather (2-4 pairs of shoes) . These emissions are those allocated only to the skins of cattle, not to the entire 'production' - breeding and farming - of these animals, which results in even further emissions.
The deforestation of rainforests for animal farming accelerates the impact of these emissions.
According to Collective Fashion Justice, leather certification labels fail to consider the full “production” chain of leather by focusing only on tanneries but not farms, thus ignoring the impact of emissions and deforestation in their analysis.
Collective Fashion Justice reports that the CO2 emissions of bio-based leather goods are up to 19 times smaller than animal leather and 3.5 times smaller than synthetic substitutes.
The use of toxic materials and chemicals during tanning and wasting of fresh water
Leftover portions of rawhides in the river Turag adjacent to the Savar Tannery Industrial Estate in Bangladesh. Image taken by Sony Ramani, retrieved from New Age.
Over 90% of leather is tanned with chromium, a severely toxic heavy metal. Even in chrome-free conventional tanning methods, up to 120 unique chemicals and heavy metals are utilised, posing significant risks for soil, agricultural land, air pollution, and risks to plant and animal wildlife. Only 10% of all hides are tanned with vegetable tanning options.
It's estimated that 600 million cubic metres of poorly biodegradable tannery wastewater is produced each year, with 350 million cubic metres of this discharged back into the environment after treatment, which can vary in efficacy.
Meanwhile, as much as 300 – 400 million tons of heavy metals, solvents, toxic sludges and other waste in discharged tannery waste are dumped into water bodies each year.
As little as 150 kg out of 1,000 kg of raw cow hides are actually generated into finished leather in some supply chains, while the remaining 850 kg are left as waste throughout the pre-fleshing, lime fleshing, shaving, buffing, and trimming processes.
As if water pollution was not enough, leather production consumes high amounts of fresh water in the production process. It is estimated that 12,370 litres of fresh water are needed to produce one pair of leather boots. This equals the drinking water for one person for 16 years.
Bio-based leather producers managed to reduce this water footprint significantly.
The vegan leather producer Desserto stated that its partly cactus-derived, polyurethane-coated leather alternative has a water footprint that is 1,647% smaller than some bovine leather.
Read more about the impact of the leather industry on the planet here.
Inefficient sustainability labels and certificates
Collective Fashion Justice and others conclude that it is almost impossible to produce sustainable leather and that almost all attempts to make this claim are greenwashing more than anything else, as certifications and labels fail to take all components of the process of the leather production chain into consideration.
Moving beyond leather
I think it is time to stop using leather in the fashion industry and move towards more sustainable materials, wouldn’t you agree?
Our Cheelettos (high heels) are made with 100% bio-based vegan leather that is made from corn or mycelium and recycled synthetic materials.
Next week, I will tell you how vegan leather is made and how its footprint positively compares to the leather industry's.
Stand tall!
With love,
Fiorella
PS: Ready to wear vegan high heels?
The first collection of Cheelettos - our all-vegan high heels - is launching in the summer of 2024.
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