A process for decontaminating a solid material contaminated with an organic pollutant wherein the solid material contains grains with a particle size of up to 60 microns, which includes the steps of: (a) extracting the organic pollutant from the solid material containing grains with the particle size up to 60 microns by using a microemulsion which includes a thermodynamically stable, macroscopically homogeneous and optically transparent mixture of water, an apolar hydrophobic solvent, and a surfactant to form a cleaned solid material and a pollutant-containing microemulsion; (b) separating the cleaned solid material from the pollutant-containing microemulsion; and (c) splitting the pollutant-containing microemulsion into a surfactant-rich phase and a pollutant-containing phase.