Plants can clean up contaminated soil

Phytoremediation is an eco-friendly technique where plants naturally extract, degrade, or stabilize harmful soil contaminants. This process, first named in the 1990s, uses plants' ability to absorb toxins through their roots, moving them to leaves where they can be harvested or broken down. For example, sunflowers helped clean up radioactive sites after the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, showing how some plants can concentrate heavy metals far beyond surrounding soil levels.