Efforts ramped up to deliver peat alternatives

A task force set up toencourage the use ofpeat alternatives such as green waste compost in horticulture has published an interim report setting out its progress to date.

The Sustainable Growing Media Task Force was set up by Defra in June 2011 to advise on how best to reduce the use of peat and look at’sustainable’ optionssuch asbark andwoodfrom the timber industry and food and garden waste.

Defra is hoping to reduce peat use to zero by 2030, as it is a non-renewable resource formed over hundreds of thousands of years. The departmentcommitted in its Natural Environment White Paper to set up the group, which was originally named the Peat Task Force until its remit was widened last year.

The Task Force is made up of representatives of 35 organisations including growing media manufacturers, retailers, professional growers and non-governmental experts who met for the first time in October 2011.

In the foreword to the report, published last week (April 2), task force chair and sustainable development expert Dr Alan Knight says thetask forcehas taken a number of big steps forward but says there is still a long way to go.

The Task Force is due to produce a final report for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in June 2012.

He says: Ultimately, the success of the Task Forces work will depend on our ability to create a roadmap which secures long term commitment from all parts of the supply chain, and collaboration between Defra, NGOs and the horticulture sector to shape an industry that uses all the key sustainability trends to underpin its prosperity, the prosperity of rural areas and the wellbeing of gardeners and consumers everywhere.

Peat alternatives

With regards to waste-derived growing media, the report details two ongoing projects. The first is looking at delivering peat alternatives within the waste regime and is being led by Ben Malin of the Somerset Peat Producers Association.

The report notes that under the European Waste Framework Directive, many potential peat alternatives are classified as a waste and manufacturers must have a waste management licence to use them. The Task Force wants to achieve a position whereby the manufacture of quality waste derived growing media can be freed of waste controls.

It says: The project group is developing a paper to share with the Environment Agency in early June setting out the materials, markets and use of growing media and soil improvers within the horticultural context and to clarify various issues. This will be used to determine a suitable way forward and whether an end of waste position is achievable for the materials in question.

Confidence

The second project detailed in the report which relates to waste is looking at improving confidence in the use of green compost. This is being led by Lee Best at WRAP.

The report states that green compost will not be the solution to peat replacement either in terms of complete replacement or its suitability for certain uses, but it does have an important role to play. There is general support in the task force for the use of green compost in growing media products in the amateur market but more limited support for its use in the professional market.

It explains: A number of issues have been raised over the use of green compost ranging from potential contamination with herbicides to bio-security risks (plant diseases) to insufficient controls on physical contaminants. How can public policy or other means/interventions be used to resolve these issues?

Action

When the project group met in January 2012 it indentified key areas of work where further action was required to better understand and solve issues with green compost in growing media.

These are:

• Working with local authorities, householders and landscapers to understand and improve collection/green compost feedstock quality work is already ongoing across a range of organisations to communicate with householders the importance of collection quality. The report says that more work is needed on herbicides to ensure that householders and other herbicide users are aware of and follow label guidance so that persistent herbicides do not end up in green compost feedstock and in the resulting green compost at significant levels.
• Working with compost producers to improve compost quality and ensure that compost is a cost-effective peat replacement WRAPs Guidelines for the Specification of Quality Compost for use in Growing Media (2011) and accompanying Compost Production for use in Growing Media: a Good Practice Guide (2011) contains guidance for composters on producing green compost specifically for growing media inclusion. These documents, say the Task Force, need to be kept under review in terms of their uptake and use as well as their relevance to the needs of users of both amateur and professional growing media. Some specific aspects of green compost quality are currently known to cause issues for the growing media sector. For some of these there is already a large body of existing literature which needs to be brought together and reviewed and the knowledge transferred to the producer and user community. In other areas, such as herbicide contamination, further research will be required.
• Working with compost users (amateur and professional) to improve their understanding of how to use green compost (or growing media containing green compost) to get the results they want to achieve. This includes demonstrating best practice and highlighting how green compost issues (some perceived) amongst users can and have been overcome.

• Understanding future movements in compost markets / availability a strategic review of the composting sector needs to be undertaken, says the report, in order to understand if the quality needs of the growing sector market can be maintained and that there will be a long term supply of suitable green compost, i.e. against a back-drop of competing markets for green compost such as agriculture, collection trends and the emergence of other treatment technologies, e.g. Anaerobic Digestion.