Recent Advances in Phytoremediation of Soil Contaminated by Industrial Waste: A Road Map to a Safer Environment

The advent of the industrial revolution has boosted human and technological development, but at a price. Contaminants have been increasingly accumulating across wider areas scattered around the world, making pollution a major planetary issue. Among these pollutants, those related to industrial waste are perhaps the most threatening due to their broad variety and capacity to migrate through the air, water, and soil, enter the food chain, and cause a deleterious impact on life and the environment. Finding solutions to deter industrial pollution has thus become the need of the hour. However, conventional techniques have often proven unworkable due to their cost and harmful collateral effects to the environment. In this light, a plant-based technique with the capacity to stabilize, extract, and/or degrade pollutants known as phytoremediation, has emerged as a promising alternative due to its inexpensiveness and environment-friendly character. Here, we review the latest advances on phytoremediation of sites afflicted by industrial pollution and outline the future scope of this green technique.