faq...

The colours in the leather change due to the influence of high-energy solar rays. Depending on the type of tanning and tanning agents used this effect varies: the original colour of the leather darkens or fades.

This is a natural process which can only be avoided with the use of chemical additives on the surface of the leather. For health and ecological reasons however, it is more acceptable not to expose your leather furniture, clothes or shoes to direct sunlight or a strong light source but to place them in the shade.

The leather doesn´t actually lose its colour but very fine leather dust is transferred onto the garment. In the production of nubuck leather the surface of the hide is intensively ground to create the velvety pile. Despite frequent subsequent cleaning some dust still sticks to the leather surface. If the leather comes in contact with other rough materials, the leather dust will cover these materials this being more apparent on light-coloured textiles. The dust can be removed by brushing or washing the soiled garment.

The structure of animal skin varies. The skin fibres are sometimes thicker and sometimes thinner, sometimes their structure is closer and sometimes looser. In the dyeing process the dyes combine with the skin fibres.

The various numbers of dye particles absorbed by them result in differently intensive colours. If the leather surface is untreated as with Ecopell, i.e. not coated with a coloured plastic layer, these shades are visible. They give the leather its vitality and individuality. Each leather is as unique as the animal that the hide originates from.

Wall paints often contain organic solvents to accelerate the drying of the paint. These solvents can dissolve colours out of the leather and transfer them into the painted wall paper. For this process the wall paint does not have to be wet anymore.

The solvents are still active up to two days after drying. A colour strip or spot will then be seen on the wall. The simplest and only way to prevent this is to keep some distance between furniture and wall.

The word mineral tanning is the collective term for any tanning method using minerals and not vegetable tanning. Several salts are known to have a tanning effect on skins. However, only a few were able to become widely accepted. Today, the commonly used mineral tanning agents are alaun (aluminium sulfate and sodium or potassium sulfate), zirconiumate (complex aluminium compounds), titaniumate and chromate. Alaun and white tanning are used rarely for only specific types of leather. Also zirconiumate is used sparse as a tanning agent worldwide. Both tanning minerals are only used for smooth leather, mostly in treating goatskins, sheepskins and calfskin.

The main part of mineral tanned leahters are tanned with chromate (80-90 % of the worldwide production including vegetable tanned leather). Only the trivalent chrome (chrome III) of the two types of the heavy metal chrome can be used as a tanning agent. Yet one can find the hexavalent chrome (Chrome VI), which is toxic and carcinogen, as a contamination in unprofessional produced leather. Chrome III can cause allergies in sensitive persons (children, sick persons and the elderly). Under certain conditions Chrome III can change itself into Chrome VI and be dangerous for people and the environment. These conditions can appear in soil, during combustion and on the human body via sweating.

It is risky to wear (low grade) chrome tanned leather close to the skin. But also the disposal of disused leather goods, leather waste and tannery sewage can cause problems and environmental endangerment when Chrome is used. Caution is necessary, because producers usually take the term mineral tanning as a paraphrase for Chrome tanning. Chrome tanning is neither “ecological fair” nor per se harmless to the human health.

It is illegal to promote that leather products do not contain prohibited pollutents as e.g. PCP, amino acid demerging azo compounds or certain biocides. The law against unfair competition (“UWG”) bans advertisement of implicitness (“Irreführungsverbot” = prohibition of deception (§ 5 UWG)). Through such ads, consumers could wrongly think that one product is better in quality than competing product. Consumer should be careful, because the compliance of legal regulations producing leather and leather goods is not an anomaly, but can be punished by noncompliance in limit values and appliance bans.

Someone could think that with the help of good marketing and the advertisement of implicitness people could oversee problematic substances which the leather contains and are still allowed. Problematic substances still allowed in leather are Chrome tanning agents as well as dye containing heavy metals or cancer causing hydrocarbon connections contained in the surface coating of the leather.

Naturally tanned leather alike natural proudced textiles has lower protection against stains, effect of light and scratches. Its surface is breathable due to a multitude of small pores. The leather has a good humidity exchange and is always pleasantly temperated.

Due to lamination of the skin surface through a thin layer of finishing the pores of the skin are closed and can not take any humidity. Through this process natural characteristics of the skin are also covered up. The leather looks flawless and is protected against stains. The addition of pigments (dye) in the surface finish prevents the fading or darkening of colour.

The leather, however, looses its ability to exchange humidity and oxygen, due to the finish. The results are e.g. with shoes made of coated leather increased sweating of the feet. When touching a bolster made of leather it might feel cool at first, but when heat gets involved increased sweat accumaltes between leather and body. Besides the loss of functional comfort, the finishing can cause health problems on account of problematic ingredients used. Frequently used substances are polyurethane, acrylate and butadiene and could be posing a risk to health. Furthermore, the mentioned chemical substances are causing problems in sewage plants when treating waste water and are harming the environment.

This is partly due to the structure of organic farming and partly a logistic problem. Organic farmers kill only a few animals per year, often in small slaughterhouses (2 to 3 killings a day or a month). The slaughterhouses sell the hides to traders. In order to gather sufficient amounts of hides to deliver to the tanneries, these traders have to cover large distances to buy hides from many organic farmers of one region. Meanwhile the hides must be stored temporarily and strongly salted for preservation. The salt absorbs moisture and prevents putrefactive bacteria from decomposing the hides.

For customer protection the butcher must have a veterinary certificate issued for each raw hide that is sold. With small slaughterhouses the expense per hide is much higher than with big slaughterhouses killing cattle from great live stock of conventional breeding. This expense adds up to the price of the hides, in turn influencing the price of the leather. Although all in all organic and natural cattle breeding is to be prefered for environmental and ethical reasons, the high logistic effort leads to more pollution with exhaust gases caused by many single trips. Moreover, the huge amounts of salt used for preservation present an additional problem in treating the waste water of tanneries.

The raw material for Ecopell leather exclusively originates from and is tanned in Bavaria. Short distances allow the hides to be preserved only with ice cubes, without any additional substances. As a prerequisite at least 250 raw hides must simultaneously be at disposal for processing. Because in industrial leather production the drums must be filled up to a minimum to be operated economically. Smaller production amounts neither would make ecological nor economical sense. The number of customers ready to pay the considerable higher price would be too small. Organically bred cattle is also killed in big slaughterhouses, at a rate of about +- 5 %. For this reason Ecopell leather is also produced of a mixture of hides from conventional as well as natural and/or organic breeding. We, on principle, support organic and/or natural cattle breeding without restriction. As to the origin of raw hides, however, we have to make compromises. Upon considering all factors we have chosen the best possible and least environmentally harmful method for Ecopell.

One solution might be the customer who, in the end, is the one to decide, for example, whether he or she buys or demands for beef from natural bred cattle so that mass breeding will be gradually reduced.

Ecopell is a leather of superior quality. Our customers feel this quality as soon as they hold Ecopell in their hands. They learn about this quality, since we comprehensively inform about the production process and the ingredients and have our leather regulary tested by independent institutes.

We can provide maximum transparency in many areas, since it’s us who are responsible for the production process. On some points we have to rely on our suppliers’ information. This applies for example to the raw hides we use for tanning Ecopell. Striving to guarantee high and proven quality within our means even here, we rely on several components.

For Ecopell we exclusively use hides from the south German region resulting from the slaughter of cattle in the slaughterhouse of the Greater Franconian area. For many years this slaughterhouse has had a modern logistics system at its disposal registering the origin of all cattle slaughtered there.

According to the slaughterhouse about 5 % of all hides processed for Ecopell originate from organic farms. The other hides are to be allocated to conventional farms. In Bavaria 97 % of all agricultural enterprises are operated by families. With an average number of cattle of 53 these farms are rather small as compared to national standards.

Many Bavarian farmers prove the quality of their products as well as the origin of their cattle by participating in the program “open barn door”. Initiated in 1989 the program joins the two separated quality assurance systems “Certified Quality – Bavaria” and “Quality and Safety” to quarantee customers the best food safety possible. For the time being 30.000 farmers take an active part in the program. “Open barn door” represents transparency and adherence to legal quality criteria in animal protection and feeding, among others.

It is determined, for example, that cattle marketed within the program have to be born and raised in Bavaria. In feeding the cattle the quality and ingredients of the fodder are regulated. The haul of the animals between farm and slaughterhouse should be kept as short as possible. Proof is given through regular information by the farmers themselves and through control by a EU licensed certification authority.

We assume that the percentage of organic farms and thus the amount of organically grown cattle will increase in the next few years. Until then we rely on the certified quality of cattle raised on small farms. In addition we refer to question 15: "Why don’t we exclusively use hides from naturally grown animals for Ecopell?"