Our Materials

At AVE Bags we strive to use as much plant-based material as possible.  Avoiding the use of plastics whenever possible.  Unlike other vegan brands, we want our bags to be sustainable without the use of toxic materials like PVC.

You can find information about some of our most commonly used plant-based materials below:

Plant Based Leather:

The outer material we use is a highly sustainable plant based vegan-leather made from cactus. This material is world's first highly sustainable and environmentally friendly organic material made of cactus.

Often distinguished by its great softness at touch while offering a great quality and environmental standards. This material offers great alternative to leather product in many ways, some of its main benefits are that cactus leather is:

  • Cruelty free
  • Free of toxic chemicals, phthalates and PVC
  • Low water usage
  • Reducing carbon emissions
  • Partially biodegradable
In addition to above benefits during harvesting of cactus leaves, only mature leaves are selected of the plant without damaging the cactus itself, new harvest occurs  every 6-8 months.
  • No irrigation system is used for the cactus, it grows with rain water and the earth minerals which are rich in Zacatecas and great for the variety of cactus that are planted.
  • Other non-cactus C3 plants such as corn need on average 1,000 liters of water to produce 1 kilogram of dry matter/material while cactus (CAM) only needs 200 liters, however these 200 liters are absorbed by the plant itself through its natural  hygroscopic mechanism.
  • After cutting the mature leaves, they are dried under the sun. This means, there is no additional energy used in this drying process. Then the organic raw material is processed using a specific formula to generate the end plan based vegan-leather material.
  • During this entire process there is no use of herbicides or pesticides. All the remaining organic cactus material not used in this process is exported and sold nationally in the food industry.

A few facts about this material:

  • Enrichment of soil micro-flora and micro-fauna through native and typical organic cactus afforestation.
  • Huge savings in water as no irrigation is applied. 
  • Environmental preservation as no chemicals are used like herbicides or pesticides.
  • Cactus is left unharmed to enable repeated harvesting from the same plant. 
  • Energy savings by drying the feed-stock in a solarium. 
  • No cross-industry conflict as the byproduct is directed to the food industry in an increased value form which is more attractive, and stimulates the agricultural sector to plant more cactus. 
  • Full vision and traceability of the farm to ensure sustainable social practices. 

Why Cactus Leather:

  • By now all of us know that ''The Amazon is the Lungs of the Earth''. It means that the Amazon is home to 200 million cattle - not Logging but cattle. Cattle ranching is the largest driver of Amazon deforestation. 450,000 sq.km. of Brazil rain forest now is pasture, for comparison, Germany is 350,000 sq.km. UK is 240,000 sq.km. It is often said that a piece of a hamburger is a piece of the Amazon. 20% of the Amazon has been destroyed. An area the size of the UK is lost every year, although sometimes are much higher.
  • 72 BILLION ANIMALS ARE SLAUGHTERED EVERY YEAR
1/3 of a million tons of fish are caught each year for cattle feed.
1/3 of all crop land is required for animal feed.
By 2025 the demand for meat will rise by 33% to 40% estimated.
Leather production - it is argued that the skin is a by-product of the meat industry. They argued that environmentally, the tanning industry is simply converting a product that would -otherwise go to landfill. From an environmental view (not Vegan) this argument is valid were is not for the tremendous environmental harm the tanning industry causes worldwide. 
Chromium-tanned leather is the most popular form of producing leather these days, and one of the most noxious. It relies on a toxic slush of Chromium salts and tanning liquor.
 
EVEN IN FULLY MODERNIZED TANNERIES IT IS NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE TO RECLAIM ALL THE POLLUTANTS GENERATED BY THE TANNING PROCESSING
 
As a rule of thumb, tanning one ton of hide typically results in 20 to 80 cubic meters of waste water with Chromium concentrations around 250 mg/L and Sulphide concentrations at roughly 500 mg/L, not to mention the offal effluence from the preparation phase and the pesticides often added to keep mould growth down during transportation to the facility. 
 
70% of an untreated hide is eventually discarded as a solid waste - the hair, fat, meat, sinew, all goes straight into a landfill.  Wastewater pollution is primarily a by-product of the initial preparation stage, wherein bits of flesh, hair, mould, excrement and other animal by-products are mixed into wash water and discarded.

 

Cotton:

Cotton is so simple, why did we want talk about it here?  Well, first off we use both recycled and new cotton.  Cotton should be a consideration when you buy anything.  Should you throw anything out made of cotton, it biodegrades relatively quickly because it is made of cellulose, an organic compound that is the basis of plant cell walls and vegetable fibers.  

Polyesters used by other larger brands are plastics plain and simple.  Below are 4 reasons we do not use polyester:

1. Polyester encourages fashion overproduction and waste.
2. Polyester is made from fossil fuels.
3. Polyester is not biodegradable.
4. can shed toxic microfibers.