Vegan leather refers to a range of alternatives to animal-derived leather that do not contain any products of animal origin. Vegan leathers fall into two main categories: 1. Widely available 100% synthetic oil-based imitation (faux) leathers, such as thermoplastic polyurethane (PU), polyurethane laminate (PUL) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC); 2. emerging plant-based alternatives including cork leather, banana or pineapple leaf leather, mushroom leather, coconut leather or apple leather. While imitation (faux) leathers can in many ways match the properties of animal-derived leather, like all synthetic materials derived from petroleum, they are linked with significant environmental impact. Many of the plant-based alternatives are produced from agricultural waste materials, drawing on circular economy models, but there is still a significant lack of comparable life cycle assessment (LCA) data on their technical properties as well as on their environmental impacts. Laboratory-grown biofabricated leather is among the latest cutting-edge developments, however, like many of the plant-based alternatives, it is not yet commercially available (NB: Valid at the time of writing, March 2020).
VEGAN LEATHER
