Waitrose brings forward plans to stop selling bagged gardening compost made from peat
Waitrose has brought forward plans to stop selling bagged gardening compost made from peat and has committed to only sell peat-free alternatives by the start of 2022.
The move follows the government’s announcement that it intends to ban the sale of compost containing peat to amateur gardeners by the close of the current parliament in 2024.
Marija Rompani, director of ethics and sustainability at the John Lewis Partnership, said: “If rainforests are the lungs of the world, then peat bogs are its armour – helping to create a vital balance in our atmosphere by storing over a fifth of the world’s soil carbon.
“Peat bogs have been plundered for decades without fully understanding the consequences and this simply cannot continue. This is something that many of our customers feel strongly about and it’s because of this that we’re bringing forward our plans to remove all peat from our home compost offering.
“This will be the first step only but it will set us on our journey to shifting the industry’s reliance on peat and help accelerate the pace at which we find suitable alternatives.”
Waitrose has seen a surge in sales of gardening products over the past year as people spend more time at home during the coronavirus pandemic. Sales of compost and outdoor plants have risen by 82% and 24% respectively compared to 2019 and gardening searches on Waitrose.com are up 27% compared to last year.
