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8,000 tonnes of waste to be cleared away from Arctic lands 2014

MOSCOW, January 13./ITAR-TASS/. Eight thousand tonnes of rubbish will be collected on Franz Josef Land in the Arctic Ocean for further recycling in 2014, the press office of the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment said Monday. Works to eliminate ecological damage will start on Heiss Island and Hoffmann Island to be continued on Graham Bell Island and Alexandraland.

The clean-up work on Heiss Island will begin in the area of the deserted Ernst Krenkel observatory, where the dump stretches over a total of two square kilometres. This includes, according to the Director of the Russian Arctic National Park, Roman Yershov, destroyed buildings, scrap, carcasses of automotive vehicles and aircraft, household and industrial waste, and fuel containers with combustibles and lubricants of various capacity. Remediation of polluted soil is planned as part of the works.

Waste collection work is in full swing on Graham Bell Island and is nearing its final stages on Alexandraland, where the last dumps are to be eliminated in 2014, Yershov says.

Last year similar works were carried out on Graham Bell Island, Alexandraland and Hooker Island. The 2013 season saw over 8,000 tonnes of rubbish collected.

The tidy-up programme planned till 2020 is now being carried out a bit ahead of the schedule, Yershov said.

The federal reserve Franz Josef Land was established to protect and maintain natural complexes of the archipelago and the adjacent territories and is managed by the Russian Arctic National Park located in Arkhangelsk Region in the northwest of Russia.

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