Transitioning to peat free horticulture in the UK: an assessment of policy, progress, opportunities and barriers.

During the last two decades the UK government has increasingly pressed for significant reductions in the quantity of peat used for commercial and domestic horticultural purposes.
In 2010 a consultation was published in which the government set three specific targets for England: (i) the eradication of the usage of peat by amateur gardeners by 2020 (ii) the eradication of the usage of peat by commercial growers by 2030; iii) phase-out target of 2015 for Government and the public sector on direct procurement of peat in new contracts for plants.
This report was commissioned in order to better understand exactly what has changed in the last decade in terms of the availability and usage of alternatives to peat and to identify the opportunities and barriers to further increases in the uptake of peat-free products. It is important to recognise the broader context within which these policies targets have been set, whereby global demand for growing media is rising rapidly whilst there is increasing pressure to reduce disturbance of peatlands in the fight to mitigate climate change.