Leather is fine and probably the most environmentally friendly material in an Apple product. I just wish it was cruelty free, but the alternative is a lot worse imo
Edit: I'll also add that there's no such thing as a "leather cow." It's just a byproduct of the beef industry, so it's not like ditching leather will save animal lives. As always, this is Apple finding an environmentalist message to excuse cheapening their products
At no point will any fewer cattle be 'processed' for meat because of this decision.
What does change is the utility ratio of the beasts. Well use less of each beast making the tragedy of their death more meaningless.
Leather is far more environmentally friendly than plastics, with a small caveat for the tanning process' chemicals, and emissions from the beasts themselves (though that's attributable to beef production.)
Leather doesn't degrade into micro plastics.
So unless Apple is also reducing its beef consumption* by the equivalent amount it's pointless.
Making cows(not beasts) less viable to grow because they are more expensive because the farmers aren't getting money for their other body parts is a win!
Less leather bought = more expensive cows = less people able to afford cows = less cows murdered.
Just like how they stopped selling chargers for the sake of reducing e-waste. Even though they can save on shipping weights and charge extra for 1st party chargers.
Now is it worse for the environment to produce extra chargers and cables? Or the secondary purchases, shipping, and manufacturing? I can't tell you the actual impact.
Oh and remember the absolute trash 1A/5V charging bricks they included for the longest time ever? They hardly even pushed out 18w bricks before they nixed the entire included charger crap.
If the drive for profits pushes companies to use more recycled materials and reduced their carbon footprint , that’s a good thing right? In the same way that Apple have decided that privacy is a marketing differentiator
Those aren't cute animals though, they are also destroying the planet with their farts. I'll have to eat so many more of them now to balance it out, Thanks Apple.
Good. But fuck that faux pleather stuff too though, it doesn't last long and is just microplastics waiting to end up in the environment. Get proper stainless steel one or even a good quality NATO strap.
They're doing a woven material. The article I saw said the rumor was using recycled nylon and polyester in some manner, but that was a rumor and I don't know if it's confirmed. But you could absolutely make a decent, reasonably rugged phone case with something in approximately the neighborhood of canvas.
Stopping trying to be leather when it sucked was needed. If you're not doing a relatively high quality grade of leather, it can't handle the abuse, and what Apple had recently wasn't that.
Agreed. I’ve used the same leather wallet for 13 years and it’s still going strong. Not sure how cheap plastic that needs to be replaced every few months is better for the environment.
Agreed, however with a phone I think leather cases are a waste. You're not getting the longevity benefits so are contributing to less ethical environmental practises.
Boots/wallets/belts which you'll keep for a lifetime are surely better in the long term than man made alternatives which last a year and need replacements.
Sure, I'm all for this. Less body parts being sold is always a good move. I just think we need to keep in check why corporations SOMETIMES act ethically.
As much as I hate Apple (and like beef and leather), I suspect a bit of work went into making it financially viable. Maybe they've worked their synthetic material to be as good and cost effective.
But yeah, there's the chance it's all marketing and they've merely replaced the word "vinyl" with "vegan" and called it a day.
Maybe they want to move manufacture to India where the cow is sacred. Who knows.
I'm curious how many animals are killed to make leather. I would think that the animal is killed for food and the byproduct is leather. If we're still raising feed cattle and just wasting the leather, wouldn't that be worse for the environment?