Plants are essential to everyone's lives. Welcome to Plantlife.
What are the environmental implications of using peat?
Although peat is said to be a renewable resource, it does so only slowly. Peat ‘grows’ by only a millimetre a year. In contrast 3 million cubic metres of peat are consumed annually in the UK alone: 32% comes from the UK, 60% from Ireland and only 8% from Europe.
Looked at this way it shouldn't be a surprise to say our current use is unsustainable. The peat is running out and in losing it we are also losing the plants, wildlife and ecosystems it supports. In fact, only 6% of the UK's former peat habitats remain today.
Plantlife has joined a coalition of NGOs and businesses, including the RSPB, The Wildlife Trusts, Butterfly Conservation, the Irish Peatland Conservation Council, Buglife and Vital Earth to lobby the Government to introduce a levy in the March Budget on peat products bought from garden centres. You can find out more about this and how you can help on our 'Protecting Peat' campaign page.