More news on peat free targets...

All growing media products for home gardeners are to be peat free by 2020 if new Government targets are reached.

Announced on 8 March by Environment Minister Hilary Benn, the targets coincide with the latest initiative in the consumer awareness campaign, Act on CO2. This  encourages gardeners to go peat-free in a bid to cut carbon emissions and preserve wild habitats. It means that garden centres and DIY stores have 10 years to cease trading peat-based products and switch to peat-free alternatives.

‘The horticultural industry has made progress in reducing peat use over recent years, but given the urgency of reducing our emissions we need to go much further,’ said Hilary Benn. ‘I know that the proposed 2020 phase-out target for the amateur market will be challenging, but we know this is what we need to do. Peat soils are extremely valuable carbon stores as well as being home to wildlife and important to archaeology, and we should be doing everything we can to protect them.’

Manufacturers of growing media and the Horticultural Trades Association have welcomed the new targets as long as there are adequate alternatives available at the right price and quality with the right environmental benefits.

The Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is now working on targets for professional growers which it hopes to announce in the summer.

Commercial extraction of peat for use in gardening leads to the destruction of peatlands, which are important for biodiversity, carbon storage and flood risk management.

Peatlands occur where waterlogged conditions prevent plants from breaking down completely. The slow build up of this partly decomposed plant material produces peat, typically at a rate of less than 1mm per year.

This creates a unique and valuable environment where rare species of plants and animals thrive. Extracting peat destroys these habitats leading to loss of biodiversity.
Peatlands act as important stores of carbon; because plants do not decompose completely, the carbon held within them becomes ‘locked’ into the peat. When peat is extracted and used in gardening the stored carbon is released as CO2, a greenhouse gas.

Peatlands also play a critical role in the global water cycle. Destruction of peatlands leads to increased risk of flooding.
Amateur horticulture accounts for 2million m3 of peat consumption in the UK.

Reduction in the use of peat is hampered by a lack of proven and well understood growing media alternatives, especially for seed sowing and certain groups of plants, for example ericaceous plants, and by a low level of public awareness of the impact of peat extraction.