From our last article we pretty much summed up what the leather tanning process was for – to change raw hide into the stable durable material, leather. But in light of the “green lovers/awareness era” every so often we hear about products being made of eco friendly leather. Now is there really such a thing as eco-friendly leather or is it simply just a gimmick, another devious marketing ploy to boost the sales of conglomerates?
Well the truth is I’m not sure if we can ever say leather has zero environmental impact because to say that would be the same as saying genuine leather does not come at the expense of animals. However I do believe it can now be said that leather can be a sustainable product.
Usually when the market talks about eco-friendly leather, it is probably referring to leather that came to be from a sustainable tanning process – which means underwent a vegetable tanning process instead of a chemical one.
Briefly, vegetable tanning is deemed the better health and eco-friendly treatment option because it uses tannin instead of chemicals such as chromium sulphate or melamine (yes that same melamine that shook the world with its health effect that claimed lives of young children).
Tannin is any of a group of pale yellow to light brown amorphous substances widely distributed in plants which is acid with a bitter astringent taste. They are prepared from certain parts of plants by an aqueous extraction. Traditionally, tannins are isolated from oak bark, sumac, myrobalan (an Asian tree), and galls.
Now as tannins are naturally occurring plant polyphenols (it is even found in grapes and therefore wine as well as tea leaves) that bind and precipitate proteins, it is definitely less harmful that tanning chemicals. I say less harmful instead of harmless because too much of a good thing still leads to a bad effect.
Exposed in prolonged excessive quantities, tannins too can cause some health concerns such as anemia as it can inhabit the absorption of vital minerals such as iron.
Furthermore, this is just the tanning process, what about the leather finishing process? It isn’t necessarily true that the finishing process with be chemical free. Vegetable-tanned leather tends to lose out to its chemically treated counterpart because it is not stable in water. It tends to discolour, and if the process was not carried out well you will find that the leather will shrink with features of being less supple and harder or even brittle.
Alternatively, eco-friendly leather could also be referring to reclaimed (scrap) vegetable treated and vegetable dyed leathers.
