Green Deputy Mayor of London Jenny Jones and Green Assembly candidate Shahrar Ali
at Asda, Wembley Park highlighting Asda's poor record on phasing out peat from compost

Major garden centres and supermarkets across London have woefully failed to phase out sales of peat, Green Deputy Mayor Jenny Jones revealed this week.

In an exclusive survey developed with Friends of the Earth, Jenny contacted major retailers to find that only one has seriously reduced the amount of peat in stock. Most have paid only lip service to helping protect endangered peat bogs by stocking peat-reduced growing media which don’t contain peat.

She conducted the survey to see if retailers are serious about their environmental responsibilities, and to boost the demand for compost to help ensure London meets its recycling and composting targets.

“Only three garden retailers scored 50% or more in our survey;” said Jenny. The last such survey was done in 2001 by Friends of the Earth, and we wanted to see what progress has been made since then. What has changed is that first, the Mayor aims to exceed the targets set by government for councils to up their recycling and composting levels and, second, that the EU will shortly drastically reduce the amount of organic waste allowed into landfill. So it is vital that the major retailers work to create a market for composts so that peat can be phased out altogether.”

Only B&Q announced in 2001 that it intended to go completely peat-free. Now, according to this latest survey, only B&Q has made tangible progress. Despite claiming to have peat reduction policies, there are very few other retailers serious about phasing out peat and offering competitively priced alternatives. Asda   scored a mere two points out of 20.

Most retailers surveyed expressed a formal commitment to meet government targets to reduce peat in all growing media by 90% by 2010, and with 40% as an interim target by 2005. However, as the league table shows, the majority score poorly on actual achievements to date.

According to Jenny Jones, “Asda singled itself out by selling its own-brand peat-free product at a whopping 60% premium. Asda is part of the Wal-Mart group, one of the largest and most profitable companies. Yet, it fails to offer its peat-free product at the same price as its peat-based ones.”

Commenting on the survey, Friends of the Earth's Corporates Campaigner, Craig Bennett, said:  “It is very disappointing that some of the country's biggest retailers have failed to take this issue seriously, despite pressure from the Government. Peat is a vital and precious wildlife habitat, but because stores such as Asda and Tesco still rely on it as a growing material, it remains under threat. We welcome the progress made by some retailers in their plans to eliminate peat, but call on the Government to act to hold companies accountable for their impacts on the environment. This example shows that voluntary action by a few is not enough. Regulation is required.”

Dr Shahrar Ali, Green Party Assembly Candidate for Brent and Harrow said, “Ethically conscientious consumers will want to check the composition of their compost. The displacement of peat from its natural ground is particularly disruptive to the biosphere. Yet major retailers are distorting prices to make peat compost the crude economic option.”

Key: A total number of points were available to test how seriously the companies are taking the environmental impact of peat sales. To score the highest number the company would have to demonstrate, for example, that not only did iit have a written policy, but that the policy was rigorous with targets. Similarly, to score well on consumer choice, companies had to show not only that peat-free products were sold, but in every store, that the range was extensive, and that full in-store information was available.

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