By 2020, garden centre customers will not be able to buy peat products.
Some multiples have already committed to selling only peat-free compost.
Managing director of Bettaland Andrew Riddington said: “An awful lot of work needs to be done to improve the quality of the peat-free marketplace and change growers’ views on peat-free.”
Bettaland enlisted the assistance of head of the department of agriculture at the Lincoln University David Stainton to independently appraise its products and he has worked with Bettaland to refine the mix. He is currently performing trials on the grow bag compost, which he says “look encouraging”.
It is Bettaland manager Shaun Dring who oversees the nine-month recycling process, from garden waste going into a shredder to breaking down to form 20 and 10ml organic compost. The compost is sold as well as being used by the company’s nursery to grow plants, trees and shrubs.