Gardeners aren’t usually the first people you’d think would be contributing to global warming. But if they use peat-based compost then that’s the case. According to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, around 2.5 million cubic metres of peat are sold to commercial and amateur gardeners in the UK annually for compost.
So why is peat so important for the environment? Peat consists of decomposing plant material. As the plants were growing, they absorbed carbon dioxide. The CO2 was then ‘locked’ into the plant’s cell structure and stores as the plant turns to peat.
