The leather used in the Return to Nature collection uses a pioneering tanning and finishing method, developed with Richard Hoffmans (est. 1899) and Nera Tanning, resulting in a product that is chrome, heavy-metal and aldehyde-free – and thus able to biodegrade and compost. The skins are sourced from Scan-Hide Swedish farms with some of the highest standards of animal welfare. The hides are tanned with Zeology, an innovative new way of tanning that replaces chrome (which hinders biodegradability) with zeolite. The leather is heavy metal and aldehyde-free. It refrains from the use of PU coatings, and is finished instead with Activated Silk™ Technology to allow the bag to biodegrade and compost. In independent testing, the Return to Nature leather biodegraded only 10% slower than pure collagen – in other words, it breaks down nearly as quickly as untanned skin. When industrially composted, the leather was found to actually nourish the soil, delivering 20% stronger plant growth than a control compost. So not only can this bag never add to landfill, but at the end of its life, it will Return to Nature.