Petition · past parliament · Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Ban the use of peat in gardening and horticulture

Closed 2,971 signatures

What the petition asks

Peat is vital in fighting climate & ecological breakdown, as peat bogs store vast amounts of carbon and provide wildlife habitat. Using peat based compost destroys peat bogs. We need to ban the use of peat in gardening & horticulture.
• 3 million cubic metres of peat sold for horticultural use annually in UK, ⅓ from UK peatlands (IUCN http://bit.ly/peat-extraction-horticulture)
• 20 million tonnes carbon dioxide lost to atmosphere annually from UK’s damaged peatlands (IUCN http://bit.ly/peat-climate)
• Peatland destruction releasing vast amounts of CO2 (New Scientist http://bit.ly/peatland-destruction)
• Peatlands support many important species & unique ecosystems (IUCN http://bit.ly/peat-species)

Timeline

10 Mar 2020 Petition opened for signatures
10 Sep 2020 Closed to new signatures

Key facts

Signatures 2,971
Status Closed
Department Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Opened 10 Mar 2020
Closed 10 Sep 2020

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Source: the official petition page. Last checked 15 Jul 2026.