Not to say that the leather industry doesn't still contribute money to the meat industry, just that this change reads more as greenwashing than an upgrade.
Not to say that the leather industry doesn't still contribute money to the meat industry, just that this change reads more as greenwashing than an upgrade.
Most consumer leather has a pigmented acrylic or polyurethane topcoat and then dyes and fat liquors. Chrome-tanned leather leaves chromium behind when it breaks down, potentially into the toxic hexavalent form. "Biodegradable" has no time limit attached, so it doesn't really say much about the "green-ness" of animal leather. Tanning itself is done to slow down biodegrading.
All of this is orthogonal to the fact that I, personally, as a consumer, do not want to purchase a product made from animals, which is why I'm glad they're not making them out of animals anymore.