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Depolluting the soil with plants is now possible. This is the challenge launched by Manon Poncato, head of urban projects at Biomède. The young woman seeks to protect ecosystems by limiting the accumulation of heavy metals in the earth.
Lead, copper, arsenic… In the countryside as in the city, soils are made up of heavy metals which contribute to invisible and difficult to detect pollution. Brut followed Manon and her start-up, which cleans up the soil with plants. For the young woman, soil pollution by heavy metals is a real problem of “public health”, but also a source of danger for the environment.
According to the UN, a third of the world’s soil is already considered “deteriorated”. For Manon, this figure could triple in the space of thirty years. “If we continue to pollute and we do not take care of regenerating the soil, this figure will reach 90% in 2050.”, she explains. To clean up the soil, there are several methods including excavation, a technique that consists of removing the earth and putting in a new one. “It’s fast but it’s very expensive and it can also harm an ecosystem that is in place”says the young woman.
With a device that “works with X-ray fluorescence”, Manon is able to reveal the presence of heavy metals in soils. But the challenge remains difficult. “The notion of pollution is quite easy to understand when you see it, so it will be plastic bags, etc. It’s a little bit harder to understand when we’re talking about things that are totally invisible.”
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