Three million cubic metres of peat are used by the UK horticulture industry every year*, and The Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside is calling on everyone to go peat-free in their gardens and window boxes and help save our remaining peatlands.
Little Woolden Moss on the border of Salford and Warrington was being commercially extracted for peat until as recently as 2017. This left it a black, desiccated, desolate wasteland, releasing huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. All to fill cheap bags of garden compost and grow the plants that you buy in the garden centre.