Hi everyone! In the picture above is me with one of my most treasured things I have, which is my handbag I got for my 18th birthday last year. I have had a few other handbags from the past, but what makes this one special is the quality and design of it. However, I’ve never really thought on how and where did it came from. Have you ever wondered how things are made? Even the simplest of stuff came from the most detailed and complex ways. The decisions made along the way also affects a lot of things.
- For example, my handbag is made by polypyrene, a synthetic material to replace leather. All these years, leather always had a reputation for good and luxurious handbags. However, it affected the environment horribly as Intensive farming is responsible of 18% of the total greenhouse gas emissions every year. Tannery, the skin leather process also causes a huge amount of pollution into rivers. Such as the the Buriganga river in Bangladesh the city’s pollution is so high that no fishes nor no plants can live in there anymore due to tanneries. Thus, changing leather to synthetic materials benefit us environmentally.
- Due to the reduced demand of leather these days as we have cheaper and more convenient alternatives, it also affects us economically. While the most valuable parts of animals are those sold as ground beef or steaks, remnants such as bones, blood and fat end up in things like fertilizer, gelatin, medicines and textiles. Hides, or the one used for leather account for about 44% of the slaughtered animal’s weight but less than 10% of its value, government data show. Hides are the key ingredient in a global market for leather goods that was worth $93.2 billion in 2016, but decreased to almost 13% every year. Thus, the value of hides is now cheaper as they now hit the lowest price since 2009.
- Last but not least, when demand of leather drops it does also affect us socially, especially in terms of public health. Leather tannery is a process to avoid the skin to rot and to make it water resistant but it uses a lot of in tanneries or in their close areas. More than 80% of the leather is tanned using chromium leading to almost 16 millions of people exposed to the dangers of this product according to the NGO Pure Earth. 3 million of people are affected by diseases linked to the presence of chromium in their daily environment. Furthermore, it is to be noted that the chemical component used in tanneries don’t disappear on their own and can often be encountered in the final product exposing the danger to not only the workers but also us as the customers.
As a conclusion, my favorite handbag made out of synthetic material has connected the 3 pillars of sustainability without me realizing all this while. Always bear in mind all the decisions we make big or small will always have it consequences towards our environment, economics and social.
a lil something 