Talking Rubbish - The Recycling Podcast 84. The BrewDog forest - climate solution or greenwashing?
Mar 5, 2026
They dig into BrewDog’s grand forest promise, its sale, and whether the scheme was climate action or marketing. They debate peatland planting risks, public funding and carbon accounting errors. There is a deep dive on plastic tree guards — help or harm — and a brisk chat about food waste disposers and recycling policy quirks.
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Peatland Beats Trees For Carbon Storage
- Peatland restoration often matters more for carbon than new tree planting and can be harmed by planting on peat.
- Peat covers ~3% of Earth's surface but holds twice the carbon of all forests combined, so disturbing it can release huge CO2.
Fast Planting Raises Sapling Failure Rates
- Quality of planting matters: BrewDog lost roughly half of 500,000 saplings in a drought year, far above typical 10–30% loss.
- Rapid planting to hit targets with insufficient labour or poor site choice increases failure risk.
Don't Treat Saplings As Immediate Offsets
- Avoid counting newly planted saplings as immediate carbon offsets until survival is proven.
- Most trees don't deliver meaningful carbon savings until ~10 years, and high early mortality (BrewDog ~50%) undermines offset claims.