I love peat-based compost

Having gardened for more years than I want to admit to, there's one thing I love using in my garden - peat-based composts. Not peat per se as a soil improver or mulch - in fact, peat is rubbish for both jobs and I prefer to use composted bark or home-made compost. I've tried compost alternatives - and although they've improved in recent years - I just can't get used to them.

Now, sadly, it looks like the end is nigh for my first love in the compost arena.

On March 8, Environment Secretary Hilary Benn called for the phase-out of peat-based composts by 2020. The phase out would mean that garden centres and DIY stores would cease to sell peat-based composts for the amateur gardening market and we'd all be forced to switch to peat-free alternatives instead. Why is it that gardeners are always the ones made to suffer?
In Ireland, 97% of Irish peat is burnt as a fuel.
Some experts reckon that in certain parts of the world (especially Scandinavia/Russia) peat is regenerating faster than it is being used up.

So what do we use to replace it, bearing in mind that between 50-55 million bags of compost are sold in the UK alone each year? This equates to roughly 400 million litres of replacement material is needed.
Coir: not enough is produced, it has to be boated across the world.
Composted bark/bark waste and wood shavings: again not enough is produced, we'd have to cut down trees at a huge rate of knots to produce it. The building trade isn't buoyant and wood shavings are a bi-product of the building trade.
Green waste: again not enough is produced, it is of variable quality and it varies from month to month - high in grass clippings in summer, high in wood prunings in winter. This makes producing a compost that produces consistent results difficult for the producers.

All these products are more expensive than peat, so compost costs are bound to rocket skywards too.

So, who can tell me what we've got that is readily available in the quantities needed and has a consistent make-up and gives consistent results. I'm sure the compost producers would love to know too. Believe you me, if there was something out there that was anywhere near as good as peat, the compost producers would have latched on to it and used it.

Am I angry? You bet!