One 4 Leather, a global group of automotive leather manufacturers and suppliers, has claimed using leather in cars is actually benefitting the planet. In fact, it states that if the automotive industry stopped using leather altogether, 35 million hides would go to landfill, meaning an extra 644 million kg of CO2e would be emitted annually. This is equivalent to driving an average IC-vehicle 6.4 billion kilometre.
It takes into consideration leather as a by-product of the meat and dairy industry, as confirmed by the World Wildlife Federation (WWF), no cattle are bred for hides. One 4 Leather reports 331 million cattle are processed each year by the meat industry, creating over 2.18 billion m3 of hides, which is equivalent to twice the volume of Mount Everest.
With global beef consumption rising, the leather industry is pivotal as it upcycles hides that would otherwise rot in landfill and emit billions of tonnes of CO2 each year.
It estimates that 40% of the 331 million hides (over 3.8 billion kg) go to landfill. That’s equivalent to 6,650 (fully laden) Airbus A380s. Of the remaining 60%, the automotive leather industry takes and processes 18%, which if laid end-to-end, the hides the automotive industry saves from landfill, would wrap around the earth 1.8 times.
Interestingly, One 4 Leather has called up on manufacturers to increase their use of the natural material as it reduces the number of hides ending up in landfill.
“The automotive industry can make a difference to the planet by using more leather in its cars, thus reducing the number of hides going to waste. If the demand for automotive leather increases by just 10%, it would save 3.5 million hides from landfill. That’s a saving of over 64 million kg of CO2 and enough leather for 1.1 million car interiors.”
“Car manufacturers are keen to promote greener options to leather in the form of PU and PVC materials. However, most leather alternatives contain more than 80% plastic. It’s the small amount of plant or vegetable (mushroom, pineapple, cactus) content that grabs the headlines. These composite materials are difficult and currently very expensive to recycle, so they will inevitably end up in landfill,” it concluded.
