Cleaning up naturally

AFTFR health care and the agricultural
sector, environment is a major growth
area for the application of biotechnology. A recent report published by the
Organisation of Economic Cooperation
and Development (OECD) titled "Biotechnology for a Clean Environment"
indicates that biotechnology is likely
to play a key role in cleaning up the
environment. According to the OECD
report, the major advantages of environmental biotechnology is that the methods are relatively simple and enable
costs to be trimmed. Savings of 60 to 80
per cent are possible compared with
chemical processes. Biotechnological
soil clean up enables pollution to be
"eaten up" by micro-organisms.