To treat leather for use in cars, the hide has to go through several chemical processes. That’s why it smells so lovely. There’s no denying that this also hurts the air quality and releases toxins into the water supply.
We’ve known this for a while. There’s a small city in India called Kanpur. It’s home to 2.5 million people and more than 300 leather tanneries. They use water and chromium to tan the leather, 90% of which goes to the UK and USA.
This kind of treatment also makes genuine leather biodegradable resistant, but manufacturers are exploring new ways of working the hide without damaging the environment. BMW, for example, uses olive leaf extracts to tan the leather inside a BMW iX.
Another solution to this problem is to track the leather. Rolls-Royce and Bentley have systems to ensure their hides come from the best possible places. As you might know, they prefer bulls to cows, which need to come from northern Europe, so there are no bug bites. These bulls also roam free, so there are no blemishes from fences.
Because these companies are so niche, they can trace the hide from the moment a bull goes through an extreme exfoliation process. They can also track the tanning process to ensure no toxic chemicals are used and that water isn’t poisoned. If you want to be a supplier, you must agree to a stringent set of rules to ensure nothing is harmed and goes to waste.
