The luxury handbag market is estimated to be worth a staggering US$72.7 billion (in 2023) and consumes between 5 and 10% of global leather production (totaling around 2 billion square meters annually). All these bags are held together with plastic-based components with foams used for filling, making it impossible to recycle discarded bags.
With such large amounts of money at stake, it’s not surprising to see innovative companies tackling these issues, as consumers increasingly search for more sustainable options. Adra Biomaterials is a London-based company that sources spent grain from the beer brewing process and transforms it into a leather replacement material designed to decompose at end of life. Adra has tamed up with Been London to launch a snakeskin version of their Millais handbag featuring New Grain leather. The bag was the result of an 800,000-pound grant from the UK government with R&D from the Queen Mary University of London and King’s College London.
Tacking the issue of the plastic components used by most manufacturers Melina Bucher has announced the Dreamer, its first biobased, plastic-free bag. Five years in development the Dreamer includes BioPuff Original, an insulation material made by Ponda using fibres from the Typha plant, which regenerates in wetland ecosystems. Hemp residues are used to make the bag’s reinforcements with Ecovative’s mycelium foam (which can be grown in just nine days) also used.
These two innovative projects highlight the investment of time and money required to tackle the plastics issue. While luxury handbags might seem an unlikely starting point, this industry has the resources needed to kick start the development of alternative materials which can then, of course, be used across a wide range of industries.