What is Bioremediation?
Keeping the environment clean - that's the name of the
game with bioremediation, because the quality of life on
Earth is linked inextricably to the overall quality of the
environment.
Bioremediation is any process that uses living
micro-organisms, or their enzymes, to return a polluted
environment to its original condition.
As such, it uses relatively low-cost, low-technology
techniques, such as using environment-friendly
microorganisms which generally have a high public acceptance
and can be used on the site of the problem.
These micro-organisms can be used to remedy a number of
types of pollution such as oil spills and pollution caused
by intensive agriculture.
In a non-polluted environment, bacteria, fungi, protists,
and other microorganisms are constantly at work breaking
down organic matter. That's how Nature works. Pollution
occurs when these microorganisms are overwhelmed by the
amount of organic matter they have to deal with.
We help, by supplying bacteria that enhance the same
biodegradation processes that occur in nature. To do this we
supply the same naturally-occurring bacteria that are found
in the environment, but raised to much higher
concentrations.
This has the advantage of treating the contamination in
place so that large quantities of soil, sediment or water do
not have to be dug up or pumped out of the ground for
treatment.
Is bioremediation safe?
Yes!
Bioremediation is very safe because it relies on microbes
that naturally occur in soil. These microbes are helpful and
pose no threat to people at the site or in the community.
The bacteria that we supply are approved for import and use
in New Zealand by the NZ Bio Securities Commission,
ERMA
and the HNSO Act.
Often bioremediation does not require as much equipment or
labour as most other methods, therefore, it is usually
considerably cheaper and easier to apply.
