Whether in the form of super-soft bison "down" or ultra-insulating guard hairs, this meat industry byproduct deserves to be salvaged rather than sent to landfill.Author:Whitney BauckUpdated:Nov 27, 2019Original:Nov 27, 2019As sustainability becomes an increasingly pressing priority in fashion and beauty, materials with a minimal ecological impact are being sought out by a range of brands looking to shrink their environmental footprints.
"Basically, we take the hide, rescue the fiber from landfills or from being burned, and then return the hides to the meat processing plants so they can pass them on to tanneries," says Brendan Rauth, senior apparel designer at United by Blue, on the phone. "We did that primarily to keep the desirable fiber from being wasted."
"It's pretty much the equivalent of cashmere," says Rauth of bison down. "It's really a luxury fiber. It has all the benefits you would get from super fine wool like cashmere." How is it produced?Unlike sheep or goats, which can be shorn regularly throughout their lives, "bison are not super interested in holding still to be sheared," Rauth says. As a result, the fiber can only be gathered as a step prior to tanning the hides for leather.
The other difficulty is the inconsistency of yield. Because bison fiber is collected at the end of the animal's life, rather than regularly throughout it, it's much harder to estimate how much fiber will be available, which makes it harder to plan how much product you can make with it.What's next for bison wool?Though bison wool is most often used for the down, United by Blue's incorporation of the guard hairs into insulation has proven that the fiber is more versatile than that.
Sheep wool is excellent as well. Wool and Leather last decades..