Can vegans wear wool?

I saw an interesting debate online the other day about whether wool was ethical or not for vegans. The most interesting part though was that some people seemed to be very much split down the middle.

Now I always advocate that veganism is a lifestyle and not a diet, in that you can eat a vegan diet but still wear and use animal products in other areas of your life which would, in my opinion, not be considered vegan. I personally would never eat, wear or use anything that contained animal products and it is why I wear the clothes that I do, the make up that I use and even why I use the cleaning products for my house that I do. I do not however believe that it is ever possible to be ‘The Perfect Vegan’. I have bought clothing without checking the materials and realised that they do include 3% wool, or I have accidentally eaten something that contains shellac or beeswax because I missed it in the ingredients. As with all things, you can only do your best and the slight slip up every now and again doesn’t mean that you aren’t vegan or aren’t a ‘good vegan’. We are all doing what we can to try and lessen the suffering and exploitation of animals.

So in that thread (no pun intended!), obviously wearing wool would be a no no. If it comes from an animal, then we vegans would not consume it.

However, one of the points raised in this little debate is that wool is, for the most part, one of the most sustainable fabrics out there. If we take out the fact that wool comes from an animal, wool is biodegradable, versatile and quite easily accessible. However most wool alternatives are made from man-made synthetics, which are usually not biodegradable and therefore add to a large amount of pollution in the making of the fabric as well as the issue of it taking hundreds of years to break down.

Now for some vegans, they have gone vegan largely for the environmental factor. They of course are aware of the suffering of the animal and do not want to contribute to it, but their main driving force is the environmental impact that animal agriculture has on the environment. As such, buying a vegan wool alternative goes against this belief, as wool is clearly the more environmentally friendly option and is also the most sustainable to make. Wool products are also deemed to be very durable, and so if you are someone who cares very deeply about the impact fast fashion has on the planet, you would want to buy products made of durable and sustainable materials that will last you for many, many years, which some man-made and synthetic materials will not.

Which I guess does leave all vegans in quite a Catch 22 scenario – which do you value most, the animal that has suffered or the planet that will suffer?

I saw some people say that they only buy wool products second hand from charity stores or via sites such as eBay or Vinted. They are then not funding the manufacturing of wool products by buying directly from the producer or company, but they are still able to buy high quality items that will hopefully last them for far longer than the fast fashion alternative would have, even though the fast fashion alternative may have been more readily available. I think this is quite a clever idea, as I feel it manages to hit that desired middle ground.

What do you guys think of this? Where do you think you guys would stand in this debate? Have you guys also worked out any clever loopholes or alternatives that you could recommend to others who are also having this internal struggle?

T xxx