Show your support and sign our open letter!
Have you ever considered that the products you buy at the supermarket or garden centre could be causing damage to nature and climate? In most cases, you would never know, as this information is often hidden or hard to find, and this is precisely why we are asking retailers to make that change and offer clarity to the sustainability of our shopping baskets. But what could possibly be hiding that would cause such damage? The answer is peat.
Peat is a carbon rich soil that is the foundation for diverse peatland habitats, habitats that take thousands of years to develop and are rich with nature. Mushrooms, herbs and salads, house plants, compost: these are products that are likely to contain peat or have been grown using peat, yet this information is rarely labelled.
These products may contain hidden peat.
Many of us will already be aware of the use of peat in products such as bagged compost and potted plants and will take action to avoid purchasing these items. But if the peat content is hidden from us, then how can we make this decision?
Why is peat bad in our products?
Peat has desirable properties that has led to its exploitation, especially in the horticulture industry, which has benefited from its natural ability to hold water for a long time.
But what is peat? It is plants that have died and not fully decomposed due to special conditions found on a peatland. The lack of oxygen and the high-water acidity essentially creates a pickle that preserves vegetation and traps the carbon that would typically be released. Over thousands of years, this vegetation is compressed and forms layers of carbon rich peat.
But how do you extract peat soil without destroying the vegetation and wildlife that live there? You simply can’t.
Little Woolden Moss during commercial peat extraction for use in the horticultural industry
When peat is extracted on a large scale, the entire ecosystem is removed. This contributes to the decline of our native species whilst also adding to our climate crisis. Now bare and exposed, the carbon rich peat oxidises and releases harmful carbon dioxide into our atmosphere. If left in a healthy state, a peatland can store up to twice as much carbon as forest*.
How bad is the problem of ‘Hidden Peat’?
With help from supporters of The Wildlife Trusts, we went on the look for packaging in our local supermarkets and garden centres, anywhere that may sell products with hidden peat; to find out how clear this information is to the consumer.
Bagged compost had the highest percentage of labelling with 74%, with only 55% of those being peat free. This was expected, although still disappointing as the ban on bagged compost containing peat should have been in place from 2024, yet we are still waiting for its implementation. 45% of potted plants were labelled, 32% of house plants but unfortunately supermarket mushrooms had zero information. These numbers are far too low and this needs to change.
Peat free plug plants found at Tesco (Left) | Bagged compost containing peat at Asda (Right)
How can you help?
This is where you can support us and help make a change. We are sending an open letter to retailers with a plea to add clear labelling to their products about its peat content. To go along with this letter, we need your signature to show your support. Retailers need to see the importance of the issue and that their consumers want change.
People are becoming conscientious consumers. We care what we put in our body, we care what we put on our skin, we care what impacts our products have on the environment, so we as consumers have the right to know if the products in our shopping basket are impacting wildlife and the climate.
*Peatlands store twice as much carbon as all the world’s forests
