This week the RSPB, alongside other conservation groups called on the government to introduce a levy on peat products in order to protect peat bogs, which hold almost 4 times more carbon than forests.
Despite a ten-year government programme to phase out peat from garden compost, the RSPB says UK consumers are still choosing peat-based products on the basis of price and that we are all paying the price literally, and in carbon emissions.
The market for peat-based products is responsible for carbon emisisons that are equivalent to an extra 300 000 cars on UK roads each year and, according to government figures the cost amounts to around £32 million a year.
The full story on the peat levy from the RSPB
