If you care about the environment, don’t buy fake fur.

Fake fur is harming our oceans. Pollution is an increasingly serious issue and our beautiful oceans are being gunked up with plastic microfibers that harm marine life. Fake fur is composed of nylon and polyester, which are major sources of microplastics polluting waterways and wreaking havoc on marine life.

Real fur comes from natural, sustainable, and environmentally friendly sources, just as it always has since prehistoric times.

In contrast, fake fur is plastic, a byproduct of the fossil fuel industry. Fake fur is coated in laboratory chemicals and comes from giant factories.

Fake fur also does not biodegrade. The synthetic materials used in fake fur can take up to 1,000 years to break down.

The introduction of microplastics has had disastrous effects on the environment. Consider the infamous Great Pacific garbage patch, which estimates on the low-end place as being at least the size of Texas. Essentially a “soup” of microplastics, the garbage patch harms animals like the sea turtle and the albatross. In fact, many albatross chicks are being killed by the plastics their parents unknowingly feed them. It is estimated that there are 1.8 trillion—yes, trillion—pieces of plastic floating in the ocean that weigh 80,000 tons.

Animal rights activists want you to buy fake fur—but they won’t tell you the truth. Fake fur comes with real costs. We need to ask ourselves: is it worth it?

Scientists, world leaders, and experts of all stripes will all tell you the same thing: plastics are hurting our beautiful planet. Let’s all make sustainable decisions and do our part to keep the earth beautiful. Our ancestors and planet have existed in harmony with real fur for thousands of years. We already know the sustainable choice. There’s no excuse to fake it with fur.