David Peters column: substitute materials can be good news
24/10/2017
He also wondered if prominent brands were preparing to put equally strict requirements for social and environmental good practice on the suppliers involved in making some of the alternative materials to leather that have earned high levels of publicity in recent months.
At the end of the column, however, David Peters suggested that increased use of these alternative materials will be good news for leather for the simple reason that high volumes of hides will still be available for tanners to work with. Using synthetic or biofabricated materials instead of leather will do nothing to stop the meat industry’s slaughter of cattle, from which hides and skins are a by-product.
But what the use of the alternative materials will do, he insisted, is make hides and skins cheaper, to make sure tanners keep buying them and use them to make high-quality but cheaper leather.
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