Royal Horticultural Society

• But I started noticing that these plants, sourced online, often arrived in the post with a passport.
• Peatlands, such as bogs and fens, store more carbon than all of the world’s forests combined.
• So why on earth is peat being ripped from these vital ecosystems and stuffed inside plant pots?

From sink to source

• Instead of acting as a carbon sink, it has become one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions in the UK’s land use sector.
• Most of the peat excavated, bagged up and sold in the UK is used as a growing medium for plants.
• So the continued decimation of the UK’s peatlands could remain hidden in supply chains long after we stop spreading peat on our gardens.

Hide and seek peat

• For consumers, it’s almost impossible to identify products that contain peat or use peat in their production.
• The Hidden Peat campaign asks consumers to call for clear labelling that would enable shoppers to more easily identify peat-containing products.
• You can write to your MP to support a ban on peat extraction and, crucially, the sale of peat and peat-containing products in the UK.

Pilots and progress

• This campaign calls for further acceleration of peatland restoration across the UK.
• I spend a lot of time taking samples, monitoring the progress, feeding results back to the land managers.
• We heavily invest in restoring peatlands, yet fail to ban its extraction – the one action that would have the most dramatic impact.

Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?
Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead. Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 30,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.
Casey Bryce works with the Somerset Wildlife Trust to monitor peat restoration, funded by the University of Bristol department for alumni relations.