Cows are sustainable, aren't they. They grow back, too. Not the very same one, but siblings.
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CES 2024: OtterBox Launches New Cases Made From Sustainable Cactus Leather
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This is for dilettantes and poseurs. If you're an authentic cactus leather user, you get the version with the spines.
Unfortunately consumers can be confused both ways. I'm vegetarian and so is my old co-worker, she had a handbag that she proudly told me was vegan because it had "vegetable tanned leather" stamped on it. I frequently regret that I broke it to her what it actually meant, she had such a defeated reaction. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.
But yeah I'm happy for things to be described as faux milk, or faux leather or whatever focus grouped name someone invents. Consumers transitioning to other more sustainable products need to know what their buying is analogous to. I for instance need to know what milk equivalent liquid is going to cream up my cup of tea properly without having to do a bunch of research.
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How well does it protect from falling out of an airplane? Cause well, ya know.
That's why they can call this "sustainable." The cow you make a leather case from is dead. The plant that this "cactus leather" is made from is not, and it continues to produce more pads to harvest, offspring, etc.
I don't think the use of leather for phone cases - or anything else - is being discontinued because of this case.
If people are looking for alternatives to the real thing, you have to make it easy for people to know what they're buying, and "vegan leather" gets the job done.
Exactly, it is somehow no longer ethical to use a product that is derived from one of the primary food sources? Are vegans now the people who determine what is ethical? Evidently, based on most phone cases, it is superior to have phone cases that came out of oil wells (not that this cactus leather case came out of an oil well, but I bet that a significant portion of it did).
In general, sustainability refers to maintaining or growing a resource supply. Otherwise, there would be serious questions about Apple's paper and packaging strategy, which uses trees from working forests.
No one expects these cactus leather cases to bring the meat industry to a grinding halt. But if you offer no other options for customers that are clearly interested, you are not just missing out on money but you are willfully wasting resources that are not as renewable. We all pay for that and then our children's children will pay again.
How about fruit leather?
These may not be real leather, but they share the texture, durability and solve the same problems as leather does, so in effect, are leather-like.
Sustainability involves more than the supply. It also involves the impact that harvesting said resource has on the world over time.
Beavers are important to the ecosystem. Harvesting them beyond their reproduction rate is not sustainable.
Cow leather is not sustainable given the impact it has over time. Making a leather-like material from cacti has a much lower global impact over time.
It's not so easy to extract the suffering of animals from by-products like leather. It's all connected and the larger the demand for any of it can only lead to more suffering. Putting ethical and environmental issues aside, offering options to those that don't wish to be a consumer of that is just good economics.
No. Cows (cattle husbandry as it currently exists) are not sustainable long term.
This is better than calling it vegan leather. Vegan leather implies it is made of vegans. Which cows are. So it’s a weird name.
This is technically a form of leather, it’s fruit leather. It counts way more than making something entirely synthetic and calling it leather.
Showing off his new iPhone case to his friend, "it is not real leather but sure feels like one doesn't it?" ...says the guy at a fancy steakhouse dining table...
Because the lust for beef is one of the drivers for deforestation, unsustainable agricultural practices, and climate change.
Ok, so leather is a by product of the lust for beef, granted.
One could make leather from snake skins, which is much more sustatainable, but reptile skins are too fragile for some uses. Bovid skin is preferred by most people, it seems.
Thus all humankind must first become vegetarian/vegans... before we get to the topic of how animal skin is utilized, granted.
I mean… we’ve been referring to various plant-based milks as “milk” (in the English language) for 700-800 years or so. But okay. If you say so.