Most gardeners will not think twice about picking up a bag or two of compost on a trip to the garden centre. And little over a third look closely enough at the label to see if they are buying an eco-friendly product.
According to a new survey by the Royal Horticultural Society shared exclusively with i, just 37 per cent of gardeners say they only buy peat-free compost. That means almost two-thirds of British gardeners are buying peat compost at least some of the time, a habit that is having a worrying climate impact.
Peat has been a staple ingredient in compost since the 1960s, but digging up this carbon-rich turf to use in gardens is pushing up UK emissions.
British peatlands store three times as much carbon as its forests, but disturbing them releases stored greenhouse gases back into the atmosphere, accelerating climate change.
The gardening sector has been tasked with phasing out peat compost on a voluntary basis since 2011. But it still accounts for more than a third of all compost sold, with sales growing by nine per cent last year.
