Last August, the government announced that the sale of peat compost to amateur gardeners will be banned by the end of 2024. As this is 18 months away, The Wildlife Trusts are urging people to make the switch to peat-free gardening now.
Kent Wildlife Trust, share the disappointment of The Wildlife Trusts, that the ban on commercial use of peat will not happen fully until 2030.
The new handbook, Greener Gardening: Perfecting Peat-Free provides tips and tricks for getting the most out of compost, a guide for making compost at home, and information about buying peat-free products.
Peatlands are the UK’s biggest terrestrial carbon-store, as well as providing vital habitat for wildlife. Research by The Wildlife Trusts revealed that extraction for use in horticulture has caused up to 31 million tonnes of CO2 to be released since 1990.
Kent Wildlife Trust, Director of Conservation Paul Hadaway said: “We are calling on a ban on all peat-based products by 2030, the harvesting of peat is incredibly damaging to the environment and climate.
“Peatlands across the UK lock up about 3.2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide and we are losing that a rate of 20 million tonnes a year, at a time when we should try to lock up more, not less.
“In addition to the ban, we can restore and protect sites like Ham Fen, this site alone has been restored over the last 20 years by re-wetting it. We have locked up about 65,000 tonnes of carbon in that period so it has returned massive gains for both biodiversity and the climate.
“We need to see more restoration at scale and proper protection of these peatlands, not just in the upland areas, but actually in lowland England where these little pockets, like Ham Fen, remain. We can be doing active things to re-wet them, to not only bring biodiversity back but, really importantly, tackle those twinned crises of the nature and climate in one.”
