Wales joins England on the route to peat-free
The Government in Wales is to join England in outlawing peat in bagged compost sold to amateur gardeners, after a consultation returned 90 per cent in favour of a ban. The Senedd will now work with the UK Government to implement a ban ‘as soon as is practically possible’.
But there are no signs yet of a ban in Northern Ireland or Scotland, the UK’s two main peat-harvesting nations. In Northern Ireland, a draft Peatland Strategy has stalled in the absence of a devolved government. And in Scotland, where 60 per cent of the UK’s peat is extracted, the Government has invested £250 million to restore degraded peatlands – but a ban is some time off. “We’ve made a commitment to phase out the use of peat for horticulture and will soon consult on a ban on the sale of peat for this purpose,” says a spokesperson.
Mairi Rattray, outgoing head gardener at BBC Scotland’s Beechgrove, says gardeners in Scotland are moving away from peat even without a ban. “We haven’t used peat at Beechgrove since 2019,” she says, adding that a trial of potatoes in peat-free compost at the garden last year gave ‘pretty good’ results. “I don’t consider buying anything with peat now – there’s a sense that one day it’s not going to be available anyway,” she says.
Jenny Hawley from conservation charity Plantlife, which is campaigning for peat extraction to end, says the commitment to a ban in Wales is ‘really good news’. But she says the inconsistent approach taken by the four nations could even lead to an increase in peat extraction. “Scottish peat could still be sold into England and Wales after their bans come into force, and in even higher quantities to replace peat no longer available from other sources. It’s a huge loophole,” she says. She’s calling for all four nations to move in step on the issue: “We have commitments from all four nations yet we still haven’t got anything concrete in place – and peat is still being extracted.”
There are no signs of a ban in Northern Ireland or Scotland, the UK’s main peat-harvesting nations