Phytoremediation was used in the Vespa research project, which is the ability of plants to absorb degrade and accumulate within plant tissues pollutants in the soil.
Due to this characteristic, organic pollutants are directly transformed by plants into nontoxic substances while inorganic pollutants are concentrated and accumulated within plant tissues. The treated soil is therefore, over time ( a rough estimate varies between 5 and 10 years), remediated by the action of the plants.