Green Silence Heals the Soil--The Promise of Phytoremediation (February 2004)

Green Silence Heals the Soil--The Promise of Phytoremediation (February 2004)

When the Soil Contamination Countermeasures Law of 2004 came into effect in Japan, land contaminated with heavy metals was spreading unnoticed. The conventional solution of excavating and burying the soil could no longer keep up. In the midst of this situation, phytoremediation, which uses the power of plants to purify the soil, quietly attracted attention.

Sunflowers absorb lead and moejimashida embrace arsenic. Plant roots, not human hands, slowly heal the wounds of the earth. The construction cost is less than half of the conventional cost. Fujita, a major construction company, introduced the U.S. technology, and demonstrations in Gifu and Kanto had begun.

The appeal of this technology is not just that it is inexpensive. It is in the fact that it restores the forgotten relationship of nature healing nature. Landscape architects, NPOs, and even universities began to get involved, and the seeds of a new environmental business began to grow.

Planting flowers and growing grass is an act of protecting the environment. This quiet innovation was beginning to change Japan's environmental policy and consciousness, as if to keep the noise away. This is the promise for the future that greenery speaks in an unspoken voice.