Molasses used to clean up New Jersey contamination site

When you’ve got a mess on your hands, molasses probably isn’t your go-to home cleaner. But you’re not cleaning up heavy-duty toxins and contaminants.

Those who are are using molasses to break up the chemicals.

 

“It feeds the bacteria that live naturally in the subsurface, in the ground, and as the bacteria grow and proliferate, they break down the chemicals more and more effectively,” the EPA’s Chris Corbett explained about how the syrupy stuff works.

A Saddle Brook, N.J., company that typically dealt with food retailers is now helping break up contaminants at an old Garden State munitions plant. Of course, molasses probably isn’t a fast-acting cleaning product.