Unfortunately, The beef industry isn't going away anytime soon. What do we do with the hides if we don't use them to make Leather boots etc. ?

It's hard to believe that using (likely petroleum based) alternatives, has less of an environmental impact than using something that would have gone into the trash.

Sure leather supports the beef industry, but if it didn't we'd still have the beef industry, and what do we do with that leather?

Edit: I thought about it a bit more, the less people use leather the cheaper it will become. It will still be used, because it's so useful, profits will just go down a lot, so less money for the beef industry. So that's a win.