Leather. We all love the way it looks, feels, and wears. And in addition to clothing, shoes, and accessories made from leather, about 30% of all leather produced on Earth goes towards car interiors.

But making that leather is a nasty business, from start to finish. Researchers, entrepreneurs, and brands have been looking for alternatives as sustainability gains mindshare among consumers. The good news is that progress is being made toward the availability at scale of truly vegan leather, meaning it is compostable and recyclable or usable as new feedstocks at end of life. But the bad news is that there’s a lot of greenwashing going on around the marketing of so-called vegan leather.

I was pleasantly surprised at how much information is out there about plant-based leather alternatives and the progress being made toward getting these materials to scale in order to achieve competitive prices. In this article, we’ll first take a look at why I said leather is a nasty business—probably not a lot of new news for most of you, but it needs to be said.