Vegan Clothes and Accessories – What Nonsense Part 3
, by Irene Kirchhoff , 2 min reading time
Vegan Clothing and Accessories – What a Load of Nonsense Part 3 I'll show you some examples of non-vegan materials. Part 2 is dedicated to dyes and adhesives Cork is not always vegan, and dyes can mean the death of some animal species. Find out more here.
How can clothing / accessories be vegan? That's a sentence I hear very often.
Part 3 is dedicated to dyes and adhesives of animal origin
How do you get a beautiful red? Or a chic black-brown tone?
To this day, animals have to die for the production of some dyes. They die a horrible death. Do you like carmine red? That bright, intense shade? To achieve it, about 100,000 cochineal insects have to be crushed for 1 kg. That's not a nice death. Not even for a cochineal insect. The dead cochineal insects not only color fabrics beautifully red, but also lipsticks and other cosmetics.
The color sepia is obtained from the ink of cuttlefish. They don't survive this either. Purple, the color of kings, is obtained from the shell of the murex snail. The snail itself cannot live without its shell and is doomed to die.
What are the alternatives?
There are plant-based, mineral, and synthetic dyes. These are not always entirely harmless either. Some dyes have turned out to be toxic or carcinogenic. In Germany, about 800 different dyes are used, worldwide there are over 4000, to which another 8000 dyeing auxiliaries are added. Dyes should be colorfast, meaning they shouldn't bleed when washed or worn, or fade in sunlight. They should be non-toxic. Our skin is our largest organ. We absorb more toxins through it than we realize. Therefore, toxic dyes or dyeing auxiliaries cause harm. A bag does not have nearly as much skin contact as your clothes. Make sure to wear good, high-quality clothing. Organic is a good seal. Peta-approved vegan tells you that no animal, not even a cochineal insect, had to die.
What about the adhesive? There are suitable adhesives for various applications. Well, if it's supposed to be cheap, glues made from bone meal, milk proteins, or fish bones and skin are used. However, there are many synthetic alternatives. Even completely without animal testing.
This brings us to cork and cork products. Not everything made of cork is actually vegan. It depends on the colors and the adhesives. The cork must be glued to its backing material. Not all cork fabrics are glued with synthetic adhesive. The colors are also not fundamentally vegan. The cheaper it is, the more likely you can assume a lower quality. And also that animal products were used.
I only buy certified cork fabrics that have been mineral-dyed. My red cork fabrics are also mineral-dyed. For adhesives, e.g., for jewelry, I exclusively use UHU adhesives. UHU works completely without animal substances and without animal testing.
With a bag from Tikiwe®, no one gets hurt. Not even you.
Further links: www.peta.de www.tierschutzbund.de global-standard.org/de www.oeko-tex.com/de
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