The growth potential of the field is unquestionably high, says Ralph Portier, associate professor of environmental toxicology at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. "As we continue to look at Superfund [toxic waste cleanup] sites, and as corporations continue to dismantle old facilities and rebuild on the same sites, we'll keep finding new roles and applications for bioremediation that we hadn't anticipated," says Portier, one of the many investigators participating in this research area.
The idea of using various strains of bacteria, fungi, and other microbes to break down waste products, while now gaining in popularity, is by no means new. For centuries, farmers and gardeners have relied on composting--perhaps the oldest form of biodegradation--to decompose solid waste products from either plants or animals. In many cases (as with composting), the waste material is not only degraded, but also reclaimed; that is, some useful resource (for example, fertilizer or methane ...
