How Ethical is Vegan Leather?

All Vegans are passionate in their crusade for animal rights and the end to all animal cruelty. 

Wearing "animal skins" is a big, "NO", and thus, the alternative is vegan leather. However, should it really be an alternative?

 

With all this buzz around fake leather here are my 3 thoughts on Vegan Leather. 

1.) What is vegan leather? 

Before you get excited it's not anything new. It is just an ethical name for artificial leather. Other names are leatherette, pleather, or faux leather. Basically it's made of synthetic fabrics, or microfibers, that are made from plastic chemicals that cost much less than real leather. 

2.) Is vegan leather unethical?

Stopping murder on animals is ethical, but promoting a fake version of leather that is a cheap product, is not in any way ethical. It is undeniably harmful to the environment made of materials that take centuries to decompose and continuously fillup our landfills with toxic synthetics. The chemicals and pollutants needed to manufacture the process of creating faux leather are being dispersed into the environment, proving it is causing more harm than good.

3. Why Would You Choose Vegan Leather?

The danger of sticking ethics to fabrics is its ability to make you buy something based on your beliefs rather than logical reasoning. Vegan Leather is FAKE, and a fabric that will quickly end up in the trash. It does not age well, it looks cheap, and simply a bad choice. It does not ensure quality of any form and the only purpose to picking such a fabric is to get a cheaper price point for what looks like leather. 

If ethics is your reasoning for not wearing leather as it naturally is, it is also your ethical responsibility to not promote the further development of fake leather that adds unnecessary harm to our environment. 

xo,

Maya