As you can see from the shop page, we are no longer selling compost containing peat. Here’s why..
Why is peat important? Statement from ‘Plantlife’
Peat and peatlands are hugely important for plants, the wildlife that depend on them and, ultimately, us humans too.Peat bogs store vast amounts of carbon, which must kept in the ground to avoid contributing to climate change.A loss of only 5% of UK peatland carbon would be equal to the UK’s annual greenhouse gas emissions.IUCN UK Peatland Programme (2011), Commission of Inquiry on Peatlands: Summary of Findings, October 2011Peat bogs also act like a sponge, soaking up rainwater, and can help to reduce flood risk. Water filtered through healthy peat bogs is of a higher quality than water from degraded bogs, making it cheaper to treat as drinking water. Around 70% of our water comes from British uplands, and over half of this passes through peat.Plantlife, along with the RSPB, Wildlife Trusts and Friends of the Earth, is calling on government and industry to replace peat use in gardening and horticulture.•Peat extraction for gardening in the UK is on the rise - despite the government's commitment to phase out peat use in gardening by 2020, and across the garden industry by 2030•Peatlands in Britain, Ireland and beyond continue to be devastated•Damaging peatlands has a knock-on effect on wildlife, carbon stores, flood risk and water quality.It's time we stopped this destructive practice. Although the government has set targets to halt horticultural use of peat, too little progress is being made.Put simply, our current use of peat is unsustainable.•Peat ‘grows’ by only a millimetre a year•Commercial extraction can removeover500 yearsworth of ‘growth’ in a single year•Amateur gardening accounts for 69% of peat compost used in the UK - we currently use some three billion litres of peat every year in our gardens•32%of our peat comes from the UK, 60% from Ireland and 8% from EuropeInformation taken from “Plant life “ and The International Union for the Conservation of Nature..