‘Farming Pollution Unit’ is a mobile unit that uses plants to decontaminate soil and up-cycle abandoned areas. Based on evolving research on phytoextraction, specific healing plants such as indian mustard, flax and fern are introduced to absorb heavy metals from soil. The unit facilitates four clean-up stages: Analysis, Remediation, Disposal and Storage. Firstly a mobile laboratory is helping to collect public soil analysis from the neighborhood. When plants have absorbed enough metal they are shredded and pressed into dense blocks. The blocks are stored in a stable environment for future mining in a near future. After all, each block might contains traces of industrial metal such as lead, zinc or cadmium. ‘Farming Pollution Unit’ shows a speculative scenario that offers a solution to re-appropriate contaminated areas and even upcycle valuable metals currently lost.
With the kind support of:
Design Academy Eindhoven
Alterra Research Centre – Wageningen University
AbdK Eindhoven
farming pollution 