Fake fur. Pleather. Materials that have been made from plastic, nylon, and other synthetics as an alternative to the use of animal products.

These textiles initially gained popularity at brands that catered to vegan fashion lovers whose ideals don’t allow them to purchase any garment that required an animal to be shorn or skinned for its design.

However, with the advent of fast fashion, fake leather and faux fur are often used as cheaper substitutes for the real thing — and that comes with very real environmental costs.

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Melissa Rivers unveils a PETA billboard that promotes fake fur. But how ethical is it? (J. Countess/WireImage.com)

Fake fur has been around since 1929, when scientists developed a process to blend polymers with alpaca hair from South America. Modern faux, which uses acrylic polymers, wasn’t invented until the 1950s.

However, many consumers don’t realize that the processes by which faux fur is made may be less reliant on animals but it generates and releases scores of pollutants. According to MadeHow.com, “Acrylic polymers are made from chemicals derived from coal, air, water, petroleum, and limestone.” Toxic dyes are frequently used either to simulate the effect of real fur or invent outlandish not-found-in-nature colors.

It’s becoming more and more evident that the carbon footprint of faux carries no small price for the environment. By contrast, real fur is biodegradable and made using materials that are abundant and energy efficient, unlike the petrochemicals that are necessary to create faux. The by-products of fur production are all recycled and reused, whereas the leftovers from polymers are usually unceremoniously trashed, dumped, or leaked into the air or water supply.

There is also the durability issue: Real fur is far more likely than faux to last a lifetime and be passed down as an heirloom. A faux jacket that ends up in a garbage dump serves a less noble ideal than a high-quality garment using real materials that warms the shoulders of two or three generations.

Likewise, pleather seems like an ethical alternative but it creates more than its fair share of pollutants. In the United Kingdom, more than half of the nitrous oxide — a greenhouse gas — that originates there is due to the production of nylon, a common component of synthetic leather. Many mass retailers like Steve Madden and Target prefer to use pleather for jackets, bags, belts, and other accessories because the material can be cheaply made and it’s easier to work with than leather. Because of its affordability, the demand from such conglomerates for its production continues to rise — and with it, the potential for damaging pollution.

On top of the production concerns, shoes designed using pleather and other plastics tend to be uncomfortable and do not breathe as well. Polyurethane shoes do not mold to the foot like real leather does and they don’t hold up over time, which may be attributed to the higher likelihood that plastic shoes are manufactured cheaply.

It seems probable that uncomfortable or poorly constructed shoes comprise quite a bit of the seven percent of landfills that are choked up with clothing. Once in the dump, nylon and other polymers can leach harmful chemicals into the earth, so it doesn’t have the ethical credentials a consumer would expect from something being marketed as “eco.”

Despite its durability, among animal-rights activists, there is no convincing argument for wearing real fur or leather. But as counterintuitive as it may seem, for fashionistas who are chiefly concerned with environmental impacts and carbon footprints, the real thing is a preferable option that should be seriously considered.