The dark side of our houseplant obsession
The horticultural equivalent of fast fashion, there's an environment-wrecking problem with houseplants you may not know about
3 May 2021 • 5:00am
Houseplant sales have boomed recently, but the peat issue is yet to cut through
Credit: GAP Interiors/Alessandro Guimaraes
For many millennial “plant parents”, house plants are pets to be loved and cherished. But when showing off their green lifestyle on Instagram (to date there are 11.5 million house/indoor plants hashtag posts), few houseplant-aholics realise there is an elephant in the room: the vast majority of houseplants are grown in peat, a nutritious soil-like substance formed from decayed organic matter over time.