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COVER STORY
LEATHER MADE OUT OF CACTUS Dr.N.N. MAHAPATRA Business Head (Dyes) Shree Pushkar Chemicals & Fertilisers Ltd., Mumbai
Plant-based leather alternatives are a growing market, with innovators turning to pineapple, olives, and coconuts to produce eco-friendly materials. Earlier this year one of the leading brands unveiled a vegan jacket made from pineapple leather, while another launched a product of leather shoes made from olive leaves. Very interesting another local south India manufacturer came out with leather and accessories made from coconuts. With growing awareness of the effects of the leather industry on the environment and animals, the market for cruelty-free alternatives will keep growing. So many brands are out there, trying to make vegan leather as lowimpact as possible by using plants to create leather-like fabrics. Two factories in Mexico have developed durable vegan leather from cactus, and it could very well replace animal leather. Initially, all vegan leather was made of plastic-based materials. Later on due to further research in the last few years, textile scientists have discovered many ways to make vegan leather out of everything easily available from pineapples to cactus leaves to flowers. The vegan leather industry has come up now leaving aside the good old leather and coming out with some exciting plant-based leathers on the market. Very interesting every vegan leather is made from a plant, but unfortunately, none of them are fully biodegradable yet. That is because each material is either made with a mixture of plants and polyurethane or is plant-based and coated with a plastic-based resin. While there are a few brands already selling
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fully compostable sneakers, no one has been able to come out with compostable vegan leather shoes yet. But the good news is, most of the brands are finetuning towards perfecting their respective vegan leathers to make their shoes biodegradable. It is well known Vegan leather has always a lower impact than animalbased leather, whether it is plant-based or completely synthetic. Not only does vegan leather leave animals out of the picture, but the process of manufacturing like breeding, raising, and killing animals and tanning leather has a high environmental impact. To raise animals (typically cows) for leather requires large amounts of land, water, and cattle feed, the animals emit methane into the atmosphere; and the excrement from cattle bodies and factory farms pollutes the nearby waterways, soil, and air, which becomes a public health risk for people who live nearby. The manufacturers had previously made vegan leather from a mix of polyurethane and bio-oil. The bio-oil is sourced from cereal crops that were organically grown in northern Europe in a carbon-neutral process. The manufacturer is trying to stop using polyurethane to make its vegan leather and recently planning to come out with a new product using viscose made from eucalyptus bark. It has been found that all the major vegan leather manufacturers make vegan leathers made from plants but also contain polyurethane in their composition, usually in their finishing or as the backing material. It was a required component in the production.
Later on, people are thinking of a 100 percent biodegradable vegan leather technology that does not exist to exclude polyurethane totally but time is not far the researchers have developed a vegan leather made from nopal cactus leaves which are organic, partially biodegradable, soft, and durable which can be used to make furniture and car interiors in addition to fashion items like wallets, purses, and shoes. The scientists named Adrian Lopez Velarde and Marte Cazarez came together to create a cruelty-free alternative to animal leather, and just last month, they developed the first time an organic leather made entirely from nopal or prickly pear cactus which they name as “ Dessert “. They want to sell Desserto fabric to other designers and fashion brands, rather than design and sell their products. These nopal cactus grow in abundance across Mexico without requiring any water called a lowimpact crop. Cactus leather is a sustainable leather alternative made from Opuntia Cactus (also known as Nopal) that has been developed in Mexico. It is called Desserto and is a highly sustainable plantbased vegan leather made from cactus having superior softness to touch and great performance for a wide variety of applications and complying with the most rigorous quality and environmental standards. Developed by two entrepreneurs from Mexico who used to work in the automotive and fashion industries where they found strong environmental impact in both sectors it is concluded this vegan leather aims to
