The Scottish government has opened a consultation on ending the sale of peat in an effort to protect peatlands and reduce carbon emissions.
It is asking for views from industry, which includes those who extract peat, supply it, garden centres, commercial growers and others, to inform the details of the ban.
The intention is to ban the retail sale of peat for home gardening first, before considering how a wider ban would affect commercial users.
Responses to the consultation – which can be submitted up until May 12 – will inform plans and timescales for moving away from using peat products, the government said.
“We welcome a wide range of views to this consultation to ensure that we can set dates for ending the sale of peat that are both realistic and ambitious,” Environment Minister Mairi McAllan said.
“Peatlands are an integral part of our cultural and natural heritage and cover over a third of Scotland’s land area,” she said.
“In good condition, they help mitigate climate change and can support communities with green jobs.
“We must do all we can to protect them.
“This means we must consider how to stop using peat, whether extracted in Scotland or elsewhere.”
Leading with a ban on the sale of peat to gardeners first follows what is happening in England; the sale of peat and peat-containing products to amateur gardeners in England will be banned in 2024.
Director of Horticulture at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh Raoul Curtis-Machin added: “The use of peat by gardeners now needs to be seriously challenged, when healthy non-degraded peat bogs in Scotland are critical in our fight against climate change and are immensely valuable for biodiversity.
“The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) is dedicated to plant conservation and stopped using peat more than 20 years ago, with no negative impacts on our world-class horticulture.
“Materials like milled pine bark and other fibrous woody material have proved to be a successful alternative to peat, even for the most challenging plants such as rhododendrons.”
The consultation is available online on the Scottish Government website.
