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Vadim Kaipov/Unsplash Very few houseplant buyers, who are mostly aged in their 20s and 30s, seem to be as aware of peat as a finite resource as they are of fossil fuels. 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. The mining of peat is now widely condemned as unsustainable, environment-wrecking and carbon-emitting. Like coal or oil, it is effectively a finite resource. It does regenerate, but only forms at a rate of 1mm annually. ....
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. ....