Written by: Christin Zimmer – Product and Service Manager at Lignopure
Everyday life is surrounded by leather goods. Its recognisable appearance offers several desirable properties for use in furniture, clothing or accessories: durability, water permeability, water repellency, its typical texture and many more. However, the production of leather contains several negative environmental impacts: water pollution, animal harm, and loss of biodiversity to only mention a few.
The Quest for Sustainable Leather Alternatives
The production of leather has a huge waste footprint, the European Commission reported that by producing 1 kg of leather, 2.5 kg of chemical substances are used, 6.1 kg of solid wastes are created, and 250 L of wastewater needs purification.
Fortunately, there are many developments underway to create animal-free and more environmentally friendly leather alternatives. Imitation leathers made from plants such as pineapple, cactus, grapes or leaves are just some of the options. But to reach comparable characteristics animal leather exhibits, most of the present leather alternatives contain fossil-based materials, for i.e. the required surface finish, which is (mostly) out of materials like PU.
A Natural Revolution in Leather Alternative Science
Nevertheless, the leather alternatives that are already available show a promising direction by reducing negative environmental impacts, such as reducing/avoiding the chemicals used in tanning, reducing the climate impact by up to 7 times by replacing cow leather with synthetic leather or up to 19 times comparing a plant-based alternative to animal leather. [1]
In recent years, several approaches have emerged for fully bio-based imitation leathers that do not contain harmful substances – but these approaches require long development times because the typical characteristics of animal leather are difficult to imitate, in particular breathability, water repellency or the unique surface texture. [2]
LignoLeather, The Promise of Upcycled Lignin for Sustainable Leather Alternative
Lignopure’s idea to utilize lignin for a leather-like material appeared in 2021 with the first promising results and is moving on within the LignoLight project currently. Therein, lignin’s natural functionalities as the plant’s adhesive, UV absorber and being antioxidant are transferred into the application to create a material that can be used as a new alternative to leather – the Lignoleather.
References:
[1] Collective Fashion Justice and Material Innovation Initiative: “Under their skin: A report series on the injustices of leather production” (https://www.collectivefashionjustice.org/under-their-skin, access: 17.09.2024))
[2] Michael Meyer et al., 2021: Comparison of the Technical Performance of Leather, Artificial Leather, and Trendy Alternatives (https://www.mdpi.com/2079-6412/11/2/226)