Instead of throwing away your empty soil or mulch bags, consider giving them a second life and reducing waste at home with these gardening hacks.

But there are still some areas off limits due to the radiation levels. And as contaminated soil piles up, former residents are wondering when, or if, they will go back. The cleanup work started ...

The researchers dug out soil, put it in piles and mixed biochar into half of them. They then set up 24 experimental plots and distributed the soil piles to them in a randomized experiment.