An Environmentally Friendly and Ethically Sourced Plant-Based Leather
Team: ChemBE Product Design – Team A
- Program: Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
- Course: ChemBE Product Design EN.540.314
Project Description:
Leather is a booming market in today’s fashion industry. Leather is used in jackets, pants, shoes, gloves, belts, bags, and a host of other clothing and accessories. However, current leather manufacturing practices are detrimental to the environment as well as to human health. Additionally, most of the vegan leather market is comprised of leather made of PVC and PUR, which is environmentally harmful in both the production process and when it is thrown out as waste. Thus, there is a growing population of people that are interested in procuring leather-like textiles that are produced in both an environmentally and ethically sourced manner. Our product is vegan leather derived from fruit/vegetable waste through a process that is more environmentally friendly than current methods for animal leather and faux leather. By providing an alternative leather, these harmful practices can be minimized and hopefully become obsolete.