Natural v/s synthetic?

Question

I want to hear your views about the use natural products, such as leather. For example, would you buy leather shoes or one made of synthetic material?

In my view, I'd buy leather shoes because it's natural. Leather lifespan is up to +10 years compared to 2 years for synthetic materials. Also, leather is biodegradable. In 10 years, I can use 1 leather boot that will break down once I discard it, or use 5 plastic boots that have encouraged consumption and will take hundreds of years to break down.

What's your opinion? :)

Answer 1

This is one h**l of a question.

The way I look at it, is because it's natural, it can biodegrade and wont cause any harm to the environment.

However, synthetic materials, such as PTFE in plastics is much more useful, due TO the fact that it doesn't biodegrade.

I think that natural materials should be used to things such as clothing, as it's what humans have been using for thousands of years, but synthetic materials should be used to everyday necessities, such as shopping bags, as they are cheap to make, easy to use, and there is actually now safe ways to dispose of them (without sending a lot of harmful substances, such as CFC's into the atmosphere).

Answer 2

Be careful about the all good phrase it is natural .Arsenic is also natural and I would not recommend it.

Answer 3

Natural is not always good.

Cotton is the most polluting fiber used for clothes by a long way. Not only does it use loads of chemicals that kill thousands of people every year, it also uses vast amounts of water.

When things biodegrade, they do not just disappear! They break down and release methane (a green house gas that increases global warming) as well as poisoning the water courses around the landfill.

We need to look more into where things come from and how they are made rather than only focusing on things we buy and dispose of.

Answer 4

Nothing wrong with leather as it is produced from what would otherwise be a waste product- we're harvesting animals for food anyway so making use of the skin is a bonus.  For most products, though, we use synthetics because it's easier and cheaper to make something from oil or coal than to grow it.  The development of synthetics during the industrial revolution helped solve food shortages because land that was used for growing fibre and dye crops was freed up for growing more food.

Answer 5

Sounds logical to me.