Cleaning America’s 500,000 Toxic Land Sites: The PFAS Breakthrough

What if highly contaminated land could be safely and efficiently restored for productive use? In this episode of Hardware to Save a Planet, host Dylan Garrett talks with Randol Aikin, founder of Remedy Scientific, about revolutionizing land remediation. With over 500,000 contaminated sites across the U.S., Aikin explains how robotics, AI, and containerized systems are accelerating the cleanup of toxic “forever chemicals.” This innovative approach not only enables faster, localized treatment but also unlocks critical land for housing and infrastructure, proving that development and environmental protection can go hand in hand.

What if highly contaminated land could be safely and efficiently restored for productive use?

In this episode of Hardware to Save a Planet, host Dylan Garrett talks with Randol Aikin, founder of Remedy Scientific, about revolutionizing land remediation. With over 500,000 contaminated sites across the U.S., Aikin explains how robotics, AI, and containerized systems are accelerating the cleanup of toxic “forever chemicals.” This innovative approach not only enables faster, localized treatment but also unlocks critical land for housing and infrastructure, proving that development and environmental protection can go hand in hand.

What you will learn:

Why contaminated land is a critical bottleneck for housing and infrastructure
How Remedy's solution can process contaminated soil in hours instead of years
The science behind breaking down "forever chemicals"
Why focusing on highly contaminated "hot spots" is more effective
How advanced sensing technology is revolutionizing soil contamination detection
The business opportunity in transforming site-specific remediation projects
Why cleaning up contaminated sites could significantly reduce future PFAS exposure
How technology can resolve the false compromise between rapid development and environmental protection

Randol Aikin is a career technologist and founder of Remedy Scientific, a company pioneering scalable, tech-driven solutions for environmental contamination. With a PhD in Physics from Caltech, Randol has applied his expertise across diverse fields, from remote sensing for disaster relief to autonomous vehicles at Uber, Ike, and Apple’s special projects group. Passionate about cross-industry innovation, he focuses on using AI, sensing, and robotics to tackle land remediation, bringing a systems-thinking approach to one of the planet’s most urgent challenges.

Episode Resource

Randol Aikin on LinkedIn
Remedy Scientific Website
Dylan Garrett on LinkedIn
Synapse Website
Hardware to Save a Planet Apple Podcasts
Hardware to Save a Planet Spotify

Hardware to Save a Planet is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

If you are interested in sponsoring Hardware to Save a Planet, please see our sponsorship offer here.

Previous guests include: Peter Reinhardt of Charm Industrial, Carlos Araque of Quaise, Noah McQueen of Heirloom, Areeb Malik of Glacier, Jeff Satwicz of Bigbelly, Abe Schneider of Natel Energy, Insiya Jafferjee of Shellworks, Paul Gross of Remora, Erika Boeing of Accelerate Wind and Daniel Betts of Blue Frontier.

Check out our three most downloaded episodes:

If you have an interesting hardware solution to the climate crisis and would like the opportunity to share this with our audience, please complete this Guest Application form: https://fame.so/syn