Plastic is a real issue to the planet, which is why many changes need to be made about what we use use as substitutes.
Luckily, there aren’t only 4 materials in the world; it’s not just fur, leather, wool, or plastic! But let’s go over the alternatives to plastic that are being implied here as superior textiles:
It’s believed by most that leather is simply a by-product of beef, however it is a completely different industry that doesn’t overlap. Different breeds of cattle are raised specifically for their skin than those raised for their flesh. The slaughtering and processing of beef cattle destroys the hides and makes them useless. Many cows in both dairy and beef industries are the closest to overlap in leather, since as many as 10-15% are killed while pregnant, many fetal calves’ hides are harvested as leather called “slunk.” Luxurious!
Though this topic is about environmentalism, not animal ethics.
The environmental and health issues that come with leather tanning - The two main types of tanning are chrome tanning and vegetable tanning, with chrome tanning making up a large majority of the industry. Due to the repeated processes of soaking raw hides and wringing them out, the tanning process creates large amounts of wastewater that may be contaminated with many different chemicals.
A large portion of the world’s tanning industry operates in low- and middle-income countries, Many of these tannery sites are clustered together, creating heavily polluting industrial areas in many countries. In Hazaribagh, for example—a particularly large tanning region of Bangladesh that has over 200 separate tanneries—it is estimated that 7.7 million liters of wastewater and 88 million tons of solid waste are disposed of on a annually. These pollutants are responsible for the contamination of all nearby surface and groundwater systems with severely high levels of chromium. Chromium from leather tanning can make its way into air, soil, food, and water, and the most common forms of exposure are through inhalation of dust or fumes and ingestion of or contact with contaminated water. Workers in tanning facilities can inhale airborne chromium and can also be exposed by dermal contact.
Wastewater and solid waste from tanning operations often find their way into surface water, where toxins are carried downstream and contaminate water used for bathing, cooking, swimming, and irrigation. Chromium waste can also seep into the soil and contaminate groundwater systems that provide drinking water for nearby communities.
In addition, contamination in water can build up in aquatic animals. Hexavalent chromium is a toxic human carcinogen that can cause or increase the rates of certain cancers. Inhalation of chromium VI, which occurs most frequently among workers, has been found to cause cancer of the respiratory system. Inhalation of dust contaminated with chromium can also lead to eye damage, ulcerations, swelling, asthmatic bronchitis, and irritation to the throat and nose. More chronic exposure can sometimes cause sores to develop in the nose and can even lead to the formation of holes in the nasal septum.
Ingestion of chromium VI can cause stomach problems, such as ulcers, and can also be damaging for kidney and liver functions. Dermal contact causes a number of skin problems, including rashes, sores, and ulcers. Chromium contamination also leads to birth defects and miscarriages.
Wool seems a much more ethical and humane alternative than leather already- since we all know we don’t have to kill sheep to get wool from them. However there are many issues that lie beneath that initial conclusion. Before most sheep were domesticated, they shed their wool annually just like most animals with seasonal coats do. With the introduction to selective breeding, humans managed to breed lines of sheep that were incapable of shedding wool naturally. This is a genetic deformity as sheep are now dependant on humans to remove their wool for them, and cannot live independently.
Wool sheep like the popular merino grow such dense wool that they can suffer health issues such as flystrike and matted fur around their genitals causing bacteria buildup- to combat this, ranchers cut the skin off newborn lambs’ rears and hind legs and remove their tails without anesthetic in a process called “mulesing.” Many lambs die from infections to the wounds or of blood loss if the cuts were done too deeply, but the lambs that survive join the flock to produce enough wool for the deaths of their siblings to be financially negligible.
Sheep are shorn once a year, and during their wool growing season, they aren’t making the ranchers money. So, the ranch has the ewes inseminated so that the lambs they give birth to can be sold for their springtime meat. If anyone was opposed to eating a 4-6 month old baby animal, they probably shouldn’t support the wool industry either; they’re one and the same business! Sheep shearers are typically paid per sheep they can harvest wool from, so they work as quickly as possible. This results in most sheep suffering cuts and gashes from clippers, and some even die from hypothermia days later. It’s not quite like getting a haircut. What of environmental factors though? Wool as a textile in itself is actually not detrimental - but the means of getting the wool, the sheep, have quite a carbon impact.
The groundbreaking “Pulse of the Fashion Industry” report ranked the production of sheep’s wool as more polluting – for cradle-to-gate environmental impact per kilogram of material – than that of acrylic, polyester, spandex, and rayon fibres! How?
As with other forms of animal agriculture, raising sheep for wool gobbles up precious resources. Land is cleared and trees are cut down to make room for grazing, leading to increased soil salinity and erosion and a decrease in biodiversity.
Sheep, like cows, release enormous amounts of methane gas into the atmosphere and have been referred to as the “Humvees” of the animal kingdom.
Manure generated by farmed animals – including in countries like Australia and New Zealand, where vast flocks of sheep have been expanded to meet the world’s demand for wool – has significantly contributed to the increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases over the last 250 years.
The land use wool sheep take up thousands of acres of stolen indigenous land in Australia and New Zealand, where many of these peoples have been driven off along with the native wildlife.
I don’t think I have to break down what’s wrong with fur. You know.
Faux fur, vegan leather, and synthetic wool
Plastic sucks! Thankfully other materials have been designed and used to make alternatives that aren’t plastic.
Pinatex, cork, hemp, cactus, floral, mushroom, cocoa, banana, canvas, denim and recycled denim as fur, recycled bottles, seaweed, cotton, beech, linen, bamboo, natural rubber, soy husk, and more I can’t remember at the moment.
Thankfully we don’t have to choose between the four materials suggested earlier (fur, leather, wool, plastic) since we have so many options with more being brought to market every year.
For those who specifically NEED animal or plastic-based clothing items, recycled is also a pretty decent alternative to buying new and supporting horrific industries.
And since it’s always worth sharing for this subject, the Higg Materials Sustainability Index. Animal-sourced materials rank the worse by far than even plastic. The worst offenders are alpaca wool, cow leather, and silk, funny enough.
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