We are all aware that we should no longer be using peat. But how do we judge that the alternatives are any less environmentally damaging?
Nowadays a much greater variety of ingredients is being used in growing media than ever before. This can present management challenges but also, how can the consumer negotiate this and be comfortable that they have made a sound, environmentally benign choice?
An added complication is that unlike with our own brand SylvaGrow® where we clearly stipulate the materials used, many brands of compost do not specify the exact ingredients. Some are littered with descriptions such as sustainable, natural, biological – which are largely meaningless in terms of making an informed purchasing decision.
The Responsible Sourcing Scheme for Growing Media is the answer that can help navigate this minefield. It was created as a direct outcome of the Government’s 2011 peat alternatives task force. Along with representatives from all sides of the debate Melcourt have had a part in its creation, which has taken more than a decade. Many of us remain on its steering group. Representatives from the big retailers such as B&Q and Homebase, NGOs such as the RSPB, the RHS, Defra, growers and growing media manufacturers have played a part. The wide diversity of input has ensured acceptance of the scheme across the breadth of the horticultural industry and the conservation movement.
So how does the Responsible Sourcing Scheme help gardeners make better choices when buying bagged compost?
The scheme requires manufacturers to count the impacts of their ingredients across seven criteria – energy, water, habitat and biodiversity, renewability, resource use efficiency, pollution and social compliance. There are closely drawn rules for each criterion so that everything relevant is captured, with defined starting and end points. The impacts are counted and distilled down to a final product score calculated from the amount of each ingredient in the mix. The scores range from A to E, the highest being A, indicating the least impact across the seven criteria. Consumers can look out for the Responsible Sourcing logo on the bags of participating manufacturers and obtain the score either by following the on-pack QR code or by looking up the product on the Responsible Sourcing Scheme website – https://www.responsiblesourcing.org.uk/ .
The final score is a distillation of a huge amount of data. For example, for energy, all of the energy consumed in the making of each individual ingredient, together with the transportation between processing sites, is counted. At Melcourt most of our ingredients originate in UK forests so we are required to count the energy consumed from tree planting, through felling, debarking, composting, screening together with all of the lorry transport between sites. It’s a lengthy and complicated task!
A British forest during felling
Another useful example is that of coir. It’s commonly thought that bringing coir (a by-product of the coconut industry and globally, a widely used peat-alternative) all the way from India or Sri Lanka must inevitably be costly in terms of carbon emissions. By counting the energy for every stage in its processing and transportation we can see more clearly how this material compares with British-produced ingredients – and it’s not as stark a difference as is sometimes supposed. There are several reasons for this. The coir is washed with naturally collected rainfall and dried using sunshine as a natural energy source. Compression for transportation means that in every 80m3 container, the outturn at the growing media manufacturer is around four times this volume. And a key factor is that transportation to the UK is by sea which is one of the most efficient forms of freight haulage in terms of the energy required per unit of weight and distance.
A coconut plantation in India
This is a good example of how we are now using data and evidence to demonstrate impacts rather than relying on the supposition and mis-information that has sometimes dogged this controversial subject. Added confidence for the consumer comes from the fact that the scheme is fully externally audited.
The energy required to manufacture and transport a product can plainly have an environmental impact but the scheme also recognises that factors such as water use and habitat loss are important. Renewability is relatively easy to score with peat and minerals such as loam, perlite and vermiculite at the bottom end of the scale and green compost, bracken and wool at the top.
The importance of social compliance is being acknowledged in schemes across many industries and this one is no exception. The Responsible Sourcing Scheme recognises that we cannot label a compost as responsible if the employment conditions at any of its manufacturing stages are not compliant with modern day standards.
Manufacturers are also required to carry out a proscribed growing trial alongside the scoring system as plainly we also need products to function effectively as well as being responsibly sourced.
The Responsible Sourcing Scheme was launched in 2022 after around 10 years in preparation. Most UK growing media manufacturers are members although not all have scored all of their products yet. The scheme is also open to retailers and growers and so more of these are signing up as every month goes by. Participating members can be viewed on the Responsible Sourcing website. At Melcourt we are proud to have had all of our qualifying products audited and that the vast majority are scoring B or A.
For the future it is planned that as with other schemes of this nature, it will become harder to gain the same score. In other words a requirement for continual improvement will be built in. It is highly likely that the new government will resurrect the intention to ban the use of peat, although no timescales have been given at the time of writing. But as more alternatives to peat come into use it will be more important than ever that ingredients are scrutinized so that they not only work as effective growing media, but they are also as benign as possible in terms of their environmental and social impacts.
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