Thinking about this, we should be awash with compostable material. Watching a TV program last evening about how Polo Mints are made, can't remember the figures but there's a colossal amount of sugar beet used to make that one product. As far as I understand the beets are boiled and the sugar is made from the condensed steam, the fibre isn't used. McCain potato products; I wouldn't mind composted potato skins. Bi products from breakfast cereals, fruit juices, breweries, the potential must be enormous. Then there are discarded clothes made of natural fibres.
There needs to be something like the equivalent of the old 'milk, potato, and egg marketing boards' to coordinate supplies. Perhaps companies like British Sugar might wake up to the possibility of diversifying? The brand 'Guiness Compost' could be a best seller!
Plato is understood to have written “our need will be the real creator” aka "Necessity is the mother of invention".
@Jenny_Aster I too saw the Polo mint programme but also couldn't figure out clearly what happened to the fibre. It went thru so many processes and with the dreaded Greg whittering on at every opportunity, it was difficult to tell. I've watched many of the In The Factory programmes and find them quite fascinating - just wish they'd swap G for someone better tho
In February 2022 Bunny Guinness made a coherent argument for retaining peat in the horticultural industry which, she said, uses 0.053% of the 3million hectares of peat in the UK. Her article was in the Daily Telegraph - I can't do the link, but it's worth reading if you google "Bunny Guinness peat Daily Telegraph". Personally I have found no suitable substitute for peat in compost, and having now moved to a house with a small garden (I used to have four "daleks" previously) I have no room for composting - and insufficient green material anyway.
@Lyn I’m familiar with that article you linked. Says it all really doesn’t it?
I use compost from 100% (properly) locally composted green material for large seed sowing, growing on plants and as a mulch on my veg beds. Works perfectly well. I use 100% composted pine waste (by-product of the local timber industry) as a mulch on ornamental beds because it has a lower pH and works better there. Neither are expensive. I use a 10L bag of fine seed compost annually for tiny seeds like tomatoes and that has a very small quantity of peat in it. Sorry, I don’t feel guilty about that given the horticultural industry uses less than 1% of the world’s peat supply.
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
Perhaps companies like British Sugar might wake up to the possibility of diversifying? The brand 'Guiness Compost' could be a best seller!
They have. Let them get on with it their way. And let them decide the best branding and corporate identity for themselves. I can assure you they are thinking about these things.
location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand. "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
@philippasmith2 I agree totally with what you say about Greg Wallace. He destroys every programme he's on with his wittering and shouting. I don't know if he is deaf, but the rest of us aren't! (At least not all of us) He also thinks he's so funny, a view which is clearly not shared by many of the people on 'Inside The Factory'.
It's not just me then. On the odd occasion I've seen him, Greg Wallace has driven my eyes to the corners ! If they quietened him down a bit he'd be great on children's tv but on adult programming ..... Naaaaah !
Or is his popularity something to do with the infantilisation of the British viewing public, I wonder ? That's a good topic for discussion, don't you think ?
When there's always biscuits in the tin, where's the fun in biscuits ?
@Winston_The_Gravity_Man we used to make compost in a bucket and just dig it in in stages, so that's ideal for anyone with lack of space. 👍 My garden's titchy, so I'm quite good at making things fit in it. 😄
@pr1mr0se - I've often read that horticulture accounts for only something like 5% of the total peat used, so why do we never hear about where the other 95% goes? I don't know if that includes everyone - ie growers/producers as well as people like us on this forum. No one ever seems to mention where the rest goes or gets used. Gardeners are easy targets IMO.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Fuel, forestry and big agri, apparently, @Fairygirl. The figure I most come across is less than 1% of harvested peat is used worldwide for horticulture.
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
Posts
There needs to be something like the equivalent of the old 'milk, potato, and egg marketing boards' to coordinate supplies. Perhaps companies like British Sugar might wake up to the possibility of diversifying? The brand 'Guiness Compost' could be a best seller!
Plato is understood to have written “our need will be the real creator” aka "Necessity is the mother of invention".
Cambridgeshire/Norfolk border.
I've watched many of the In The Factory programmes and find them quite fascinating - just wish they'd swap G for someone better tho
Personally I have found no suitable substitute for peat in compost, and having now moved to a house with a small garden (I used to have four "daleks" previously) I have no room for composting - and insufficient green material anyway.
I use compost from 100% (properly) locally composted green material for large seed sowing, growing on plants and as a mulch on my veg beds. Works perfectly well. I use 100% composted pine waste (by-product of the local timber industry) as a mulch on ornamental beds because it has a lower pH and works better there. Neither are expensive. I use a 10L bag of fine seed compost annually for tiny seeds like tomatoes and that has a very small quantity of peat in it. Sorry, I don’t feel guilty about that given the horticultural industry uses less than 1% of the world’s peat supply.
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
My garden's titchy, so I'm quite good at making things fit in it. 😄
Gardeners are easy targets IMO.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...