On Tuesday, October 29, 2025, a group of partners from the XTRACT project - A Sustainable Ecosystem for the Innovative Resource Recovery and Complex Ore Extraction (Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme, Grant Agreement no. 101138432) met at the Lavrio Technological Cultural Park (LTCP) with Mr. A. Chadoumelis, manager of LTCP. The team, consisting of A. Mavrikos (AMDC-NTUA), D. Vaitiekūnaitė and M. Praspaliauskas (Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry) and E. Athanasiadou (Technical University of Crete) planted selected tree species and shrubs at an area inside the LTCP, as part of the pilot activities for the implementation of the phytomining/phytoremediation technologies. Phytoremediation is a green technology that uses plants to clean up contaminated soil, water, and sediment by containing, sequestering, removing, or degrading pollutants like metals, pesticides and other chemicals. It is a cost-effective and non-invasive alternative to traditional methods. Phytomining refers to the process of recovering raw materials from the biomass of these plants.

These technologies are being developed by the partners in the XTRACT research program with the aim of selecting the most suitable tree and plant species to help decontaminate the soils of LTCP from toxic substances and heavy metals such as arsenic, lead, and cadmium. LTCP is one of the four Pilot sites of the research project, where the technological solutions of the XTRACT program will be implemented. In total, for the pilot implementation at the LTCP site, after laboratory experiments, four tree species (Salix caprea, Betula pendula, Alnus glutinosa, Quercus robur) were selected and 20 seedlings of each species were planted (a total of 80 trees). In addition, 240 shrubs of the species lantana camara and atriplex halimus were planted. Over the coming months, the team will monitor the growth of the plants aiming to collect samples from the roots, branches, and leaves in the summer of 2026 to determine the absorption of toxic substances and heavy metals.

Further information can be found at https://xtract-project.eu/

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