Ethical Production
"If you are holding Leatherwood Rosin in your hand, you are holding a product at the highest end of the sustainability scale."
We strongly value the environment around us, and are always finding ways to reduce, reuse and recycle the materials we use in our rosin production. Clients sometimes worry that using timber and leather is 'bad for the environment and unsustainable', but this is a common misconception. Here's why:
Our premium leather comes from the Australian farming industry, and is tanned and prepared in Southern Australia. Our leather is sourced from local farms, and is tanned specifically for our rosin products. These hides are just as soft and beautiful, but have natural marks and blemishes that mean each small rosin wrap carries its own unique pattern and markings.
While we love our Premium Australian leather, we welcome the views of those who don't want to use animal products. As a substitute, we offer a linen rosin bag which protects the rosin just as well. You have the option to choose the linen rosin bag with each product.
Australia is home to some beautiful and varied native timbers, and values the protection and regeneration of forests both locally, and in the broader Asia Pacific region. Our timber selection is sourced from sustainable plantations in Australia and other countries, and these timbers are available in limited supply for craftsmen to keep these wonderful materials in our realm. In many ways, this is no different to how European violin-making timbers forested and supplied. We source our timbers from these suppliers, and we often ask them to provide off-cuts and unusable pieces that furniture makers cannot use, because our rosin casings are so small.
Our rosin recipes include pine resins from many countries, and these are sourced from manufacturers who implement appropriate legal and ethical sustainability policies.
We are a small family business, and in a month of production in our workshop, we produce roughly one rubbish bin of waste, about half of which is recyclable. Our leather off-cuts are re-purposed by our retailers to use as shop displays or other uses. The rest is given away to artists. Our chickens and horses are the luckiest, as the sawdust from our timber production is used for their nesting boxes and stables. Our timber off-cuts are even used by our children to make swords and other toys!
Leatherwood Rosin produces far less waste than a domestic household, and all of our materials are sustainably and ethically sourced. Many other rosin brands use plastic and nylon (or similar materials) in their production and there is no question that these materials have a far greater environmental impact than our timber and leather.