You stated it better than I did. I meant that persuading people to stop buying leather shoes is many years away, so if one MUST use cow hides from the slaughter, they are best used for shoes if you compare the value to quantity ratio. There is no perfect solution in reducing oil based products, but I believe there can be something done to reduce animal suffering.
Why the hate for the leather? It shows that you are using more parts of the cow. If we are going to eat them, it makes sense to use the hides as well. They are durable and easy to clean...
Good. I had a hard time with the logic of the other argument. I find that leather has some great uses for which synthetics are not yet good substitutes. Using yards of leather (read: "excess") is just inappropriate in many situations. That's just my opinion, of course, but it also fits in with that over-consumption argument. (I won't disagree with the over-consumption is wrong argument, BTW.)
I have it on very good authority that the cows were pretty much done with it. There is nothing even remotely inconsistent with an ecological car using leather. To the absolute contrary, to discard a byproduct of one of the nation's largest food sources would be both irresponsible and wasteful.
i just completely cleaned my Pri (of which i have not been primary driver for 18 months) and it was a mess. stains from spills on seats by my son, etc. it all just wiped clean. had one stain that just seemed to make the fabric look a little bit darker. that took some spot cleaner, but the rest of it, chocolate, ketchup, hot sauce, etc; just wiped off
I don't exaclty miss leather seats out here in the 110 degree weather. Leather is cool though, I always had a thing for leather in cars lol. when I Bought my prius, i almost went for the touring package with leather..but I Found the leather wasn't that great in terms of quality..it wasn't any better than the leather I had in my old Elantra, which was more like plether eh how is the 2010 leather?
leather is hot when its hot & cold when its cold and high maintenance, I should get a discount for using it !
I get the "hot when it is hot out & cold when cold" argument (I hear it from my children), but I don't understand the "high maintenance" claim. It always just wipes clean. Once every other year (at most!) I'll use some kind of leather conditioner, but that's all.
Although some leathermakers deceptively tout their products as "eco-friendly," turning skin into leather also requires massive amounts of energy and dangerous chemicals, including mineral salts, formaldehyde, coal-tar derivatives, and various oils, dyes, and finishes, some of them cyanide-based. Most leather produced in the U.S. is chrome-tanned; all wastes containing chromium are considered hazardous by the EPA. Tannery effluent contains large amounts of pollutants, such as salt, lime sludge, sulfides, and acids. The process of tanning stabilizes the collagen or protein fibers in skins so that they actually stop biodegrading so that leather doesn't rot right off your feet. Additionally, to raise the animals whose skin eventually becomes leather, trees are cleared to create pastureland, vast quantities of water are used, and feedlot and dairy-farm runoff create a major source of water pollution. Huge amounts of fossil fuels are consumed in livestock production. (By contrast, plastic wearables account for only a fraction of the petroleum used in the U.S.) People who work in and live near tanneries suffer too. Many are dying from cancer caused by exposure to toxic chemicals used to process and dye the leather. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the incidence of leukemia among residents in an area near one tannery in Kentucky was five times the U.S. average. Arsenic, a common tannery chemical, has long been associated with lung cancer in workers who are exposed to it on a regular basis. Studies of leather-tannery workers in Sweden and Italy found cancer risks "between 20% and 50% above [those] expected."
So once every other year I get to do the leather treatment - oh but the privilege of sitting on a dead animal, hmm my cloth seats are going on ten years old (many a spill) have needed to clean them 0 times - but hey its okay in a Prius !
Hey! I'm not looking to pick a fight with you. No need to have leather! It is just that my experience is that leather cleans SO much more easily than cloth seats. A quick swipe with a cloth rag and the leather is clean. I haven't been so fortunate when dealing with cloth seats. It sounds like the microfiber might offer something better on the cleaning front, however. And it clearly is going to be cooler in hot weather and warmer in cold weather than leather. Regardless of one's feelings about using animal skins, this is a point worthy of consideration.
if only there was a company that made eco-friendly cloth seats ... 2010 Ford Fusion - See pricing details, photos, SUV options, packages and more | Ford Vehicles
Ford's Claim: "Earth-friendly cloth fabric in the Fusion Hybrid is made from 85 percent post-industrial materials -- polyester fibers that would otherwise have ended up in landfills." Sounds pretty good. I haven't heard or seen anything about how these seats compare to the Prius seats. Someone's got to know! I thought the cushions were made from post-consumer materials. (I'm not really familiar with the "post-industrial" terminology.)
Now that's what I'm talking about. I never would have imagined that Ford would promote anything "eco-friendly" but would it have killed Toyota sales to leave out the leather and take this stance?
Post Consumer is just that. Recycled out of the consumer's hands. Post Industrial means (Heartland Green Sheets: Post-INDUSTRIAL Recycling) Material that has been diverted or recovered from the solid waste stream of a manufacturing process. It is material that never made it to the consumer market. Excluded from this category is scrap that would have gone back into the manufacturing process as a matter of course. This means that it is still recycled, but just never made it to the consumers hands first. I hope this helps...
So leather = post-industrial?? Still can't really see polyester being 'green' as it's not from a renewable source unless maybe it can be made from plant based oils
I hate the micro fiber. It is WAY too sticky. If you wear anything other than 100%cotton, it grabs and tugs and is the least comfortable material for long drives.
No, I was answering someones question as to what 'Post Industrial' was. Leather is a by product of the beef industry, which would be wasted if not used as leather, as it has very little 'nutritional' value for most of us. I would much rather them 'recycle' the leather they removed from the cows, to get to the meat, then have it simply wasted. That said, if they could build me a power seat, with heat, and power lumbar, without using leather, I would consider it. Until that happens, I will enjoy sitting on the leather in my car.:thumb:
The only problem I'm told with leather is that it sticks to your legs if you're in a short skirt or is that only with faux leather
