Handbags of Hope: Non-Leather Handbags are Changing the World

The global leather industry has prompted animal rights activitists to go on a rampage and campaign to end the industry, which approximately slaughters over a billion animals each year.

While designer brands joining the campaign against leather has been rare, few have come forward for the cause. The most recent is handbag designer Matt & Nat. The name, which means "material and nature," has been upholding ethical fashion since 1995 in Montreal.

Since 2007, they have been using linings made of 100 percent recycled plastic bottles. Now, through the brand's 2016 Hope handbag campaign, they hope to help humanitarian, environmental and animal welfare groups. For every purchase of their non-leather Hope bag, 100 percent will go to the charity of your choice such as Wild Tomorrow Fund along with six other charities (the Fauna Foundation, Magic Bus, Girls Action Foundation, Sunrise Sanctuary, Friends of the Earth and Keep a Breast Foundation).

The project, now on its second year, hopes not only to financially help the organizations but also to take part on environmental issues concerning the planet.

Matt & Nat's support of Wild Tomorrow Fund will help raise awareness of the conservation challenges facing wild elephants, rhinos, lions and other threatened species in South Africa while raising urgently needed funds to help defend them -- one handbag at a time.

"Matt and Nat's sustainable Hope charity handbag is beautifully stylish while giving back to conservation. Not only were no animals harmed in the making of the Hope bag -- they're being helped!" Wild Tomorrow Fund's co-founder and Executive Director, Wendy Hapgood, said in a press release sent to Nature World News.

"We're so happy that Matt & Nat have selected Wild Tomorrow Fund as one of seven charities for the 2016 Hope campaign, donating 100% of the purchase price of each bag to environmental and social causes.With almost 100 elephants being killed each day for their ivory, the time to act is now. Join the fashionable fight for wildlife."

Just this year, Kenya staged the world's biggest ivory and tusks burning as a symbol of Africa's fight against illegal poaching of endangered species. Over $172 million worth of confiscated tusks and ivory were set aflame.

It is estimated that one elephant dies every minute. World Wildlife Fund (WWF) says elephants in one of Africa's largest and oldest reserves are feared to be wiped out by 2022.

The bag is available for shipping globally including Canada, U.S., U.K., Japan, Europe and Australia.