On leather upholstery

20 Jan 2005

Got questions about the environment? Ask Umbra.

Dear Umbra,

It seems everyone is getting leather upholstery in their cars and on their couches these days. Where is it coming from -- the same cows that are being slaughtered for hamburgers, or special cows that are raised for their hides? What is the environmental impact of all this luxurious leather?

Sharon
Collegeville, Penn.

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Dearest Sharon,

Hides are a byproduct of food-related animal processing. Cattle are large, expensive animals, and using every last piece of a slaughtered cow yields the best payoff for all the labor and financial investment. Note, though, that not all leather is from bovine animals; you can also get yer leather from goats, sheep, snakes, deer, and such.

Is this comfy leather chair as soft on the environment as it is on your backside?

Almost half of all U.S. cattle hides travel overseas for tanning and processing into leather. But of those hides processed in the United States, about 50 percent end up as car upholstery. Apparently, U.S. auto-upholstery tanneries continue to be among the very best. However, the rest of the North American hide-processing industry has lost ground to other countries with cheaper labor and lower environmental standards.

That matters, because the ecological impact of leather manufacture depends on the environmental safeguards at manufacturing locations. Here in the U.S., our environmental standards are relatively strict; in developing countries, less so. Small mom-and-pop tanneries may have less effluent relative to their locality, but large McTanneries may have the funds to mitigate their community impacts. I assume you're familiar with the broader environmental harm caused by Too Many Cows, so all I'll do here is broadly discuss the potential problems represented by tanning. About which, let me first just say: yuck. Stop reading now if you are squeamish.

Tanning is the process of turning part of a formerly living animal into a non-rotting, soft, durable textile. Hair and flesh are removed, edges are trimmed, and the remaining skin is cured, stretched, and dried. Some steps in the process can be achieved physically, while others are achieved chemically. Both physical parts of the cow and chemicals used in the tanning process create effluent -- defined, for our purposes today, as waste mixed with water that flows out of a water-based manufacturing process.

One of the biggest environmental concerns is how effluents from tanneries affect surface water and local air quality. Tannery effluent can include "solids" (i.e., useless parts of the ex-animal suspended in water), which put a strain on water-treatment systems and, if left undisturbed, can form a skin on still water bodies, choking aquatic life forms. Also, oils and grease from the animal fat can clog treatment systems and generally gum up everything in sight.

Other problems: Organic material and some chemicals left over from the tanning process may degrade in water but engage a vast amount of oxygen-gobbling bacteria in the process, robbing normal aquatic organisms of their own oxygen supply and resulting in anaerobic conditions in waterways. (Anaerobic conditions are a potential outcome of almost all effluent components, either through this "oxygen demand" or through nitrification.) Sulfides are present in effluent and may break down into hydrogen sulfide, a toxic and potentially deadly gas. Various neutral salts can change the salinity, hospitality to life, and drinkability of water. Chromium and aluminum metals are often used in tanning and are known to be toxic.

In short, tanning techniques hold many potential dangers for water-dependant life forms. I want to emphasize again: the actual damage is highly variable, depending on the particular tanning process and local environmental controls. The only definite conclusion I would draw is that luxury automobile owners aren't in the habit of thinking too much about the genesis of their leather seats.

Upholsterly,
Umbra

Yours is to wonder why, hers is to answer (or try). Please send Umbra any nagging question pertaining to the environment -- but first check out her FAQs!

The claims made in this column may not reflect the views of this magazine. Neither the magazine nor the author guarantees that any advice contained in this column is wise or safe. Please use this column at your own risk.

Umbra Fisk is Grist Research Associate II, Hardcover and Periodicals Unit, floors 2B-4B.

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India's environmentally destructive leather trade

Every year, the global leather industry slaughters more than a billion animals. Most of the leather in the U.S. and Europe comes from India, China, and other countries that either have no animal welfare laws or have laws that go largely or completely unenforced. The animals are grotesquely abused in ways that shock the conscience of all kind people.

As India's own animal protection laws are blatantly ignored, unsanitary slaughterhouses continue to pollute the environment; unlicensed, illegal slaughterhouses remain in operation; and the widespread abuse of animals persists. In direct violation of the Constitution of India are marched for days without food or water. Those who collapse from exhaustion have their eyes smeared with chili peppers and tobacco and their tails broken in an effort to keep them moving. Crammed into extremely crowded illegal transport trucks for the long journey to slaughter, many are trampled or gored during the ride.

Because India's animal transport and slaughter laws are not enforced, many of the animals used for leather are so sick and injured by the time they arrive at the slaughterhouse that they must be dragged inside. Once inside, their throats are cut open--often with dirty, blunt knives--on floors that are covered with feces, blood, guts, and urine. Some animals are skinned and dismembered while they are still conscious.

Raising animals whose skins are eventually made into leather creates waste and pollution and consumes huge amounts of fossil fuels. Most leather around the world is tanned using chromium and other hazardous waste. Among the disastrous consequences of using this noxious waste is the threat to human health from the highly elevated levels of lead, cyanide, and formaldehyde in the groundwater near tanneries.

Most of the millions of animals slaughtered for their skin endure the horrors of factory farming before being shipped to slaughter. Buying leather directly contributes to factory farms and slaughterhouses since skin is the most economically important byproduct of the meat-packing industry. Leather shares all the environmental destruction of the meat industry, in addition to the toxins used in tanning.

Here is the link to an important video on the Indian leather trade. I think most viewers will forget who the narrator is after a few minutes.
http://getactive.peta.org/campaign/US_indian_leather?sour ... ...

For more information see Bruce Friedrich's "Leather: Dead Skin, Environmental Nightmare" on Common Dreams:
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/30/863/

by Karen Lee Orr at 6:38 PM on 29 Aug 2007

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Unholy Cow