While leather is a natural fibre, the processing it entails from raising the livestock and tanning, to garment assembly and distribution, is among the most taxing and environmentally harmful in the world. Categorically speaking, more tanneries are listed on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund list for priority cleanup than any other type of business. In fact, to evade increasingly stringent North American toxicity standards, over 95% of tanneries have moved overseas where regulations are more lenient or altogether undefined. A tannery permanently contaminates the structure and land it occupies, rendering the site - and often neighboring sites - permanently toxic and defunct.

The tanning process (the steps taken to convert the putrescible skin into well preserved, highly durable material) involves chemically altering the protein structure of the skin so that it cannot return to rawhide. The use of chromium sulphate began in the mid 1800s, and became popular for the very soft and highly pliable leather it creates. Chemicals involved in the “unhairing” process alone include Sodium sulfide, Sodium hydroxide, Sodium hydrosulfite, Arsenic sulfide, Calcium hydrosulfide, Dimethyl amine and Sodium sulphydrate.

Chromium (VI) is the most persistent toxin used by the leather industry. It is a known carcinogen with the following documented human health effects: skin rashes, upset stomachs and ulcers, respiratory problems, weakened immune systems, kidney and liver damage, alteration of genetic material, lung cancer and death (source: Organic Leather) – because of this most tanneries have switched to chromium (III) which is considerably less toxic but it commonly oxidizes into chromium (VI) during the tanning process and so the finished product contains harmful toxins.