Wednesday 6 March 2013

Plants used to clean up soil pollution


Common garden plants are to be used to clean polluted industrial land, with scientists aiming to use the waste produced to further medical research.
The BBC have an interesting article on their website http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-21655111?goback=%2Egde_2368048_member_219777631 which shows how plants such as Alyssum and ferns will soak up metals from derelict land previously occupied by factories, mines and landfill sites. Researchers will then test a method of extracting chemicals from the plants. Some former industrial sites contain high levels of harmful metals like arsenic and platinum.
This could be an amazing step forward in both the conservation of resources and the protection of the environment. Bacteria have been used in the past in order to ameliorate soils but plants could be much more beneficial if they can be used cheaply to extract useful minerals. Maybe they could be used to extract small, previously non viable mine deposits? 

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