Except it’s not that simple. The production of commercial leather beyond just the cow is extremely environmentally damaging in ways that aren’t obvious. The Higg Material Sudtainability Index which is used by the fashion industry shows impacts of production of materials. https://twitter.com/timeisnotgiven/status/1361212648675827713

Most commercial leather is treated with chromium to cause it resist biodegradation, and the process extremely harmful to the environment. Tanneries are among the most hazardous places for someone to work. For the record NO my answer is not ‘synthetic leather is good’ because-

- Yeah it’s still plastic. I’m just saying that Saying one is absolutely better than the other is misleading.

Also, there are also leather alternatives being made that aren’t plastic and are biodegradable, so universally panning synthetic leather as plastic won’t always be true

Here’s where you can access the Higgs tool to compare environmental impacts of various materials used in fashion btw

https://stage.msi.higg.org/page/learn-more 

Something a lot of people need to understand is the impacts of animal products increases exponentially when demand and scale is factored in. A rural community making new shoes and belts out of an animal hide few times a year is sustainable- but millions of people buying-

-various leather goods every single day most definitely is NOT.

The simplest way I can explain it is ‘ok one is biodegradable and the other isn’t, but the biodegradable one goes through a process that douses it in chemicals that pollute the factory area and sicken the workers doing it at a greater rate, so then, which is better?’