TASS, June 26. A waste collection mission under the Clean Arctic project began on the White Sea. The first cleaned village was Rabochiostrovsky, where a popular movie, The Island, was filmed, the project's press service said.
"The volunteers have focused on the White Sea islands. The cleanup has started from the village of Rabochiostrovsky, where the famous movie The Island <…> was filmed. It is also a famous historical location - the Kemsky transit point of the Solovki prison was located there. It was built a hundred years ago and served as a transit point for prisoners. Now it is a big tourist attraction, because from there they can view unforgettable northern landscapes," the press service said.
The project's volunteers have cleaned up the Yak Island, which is popular with travelers. The White Sea tides bring to the island a huge amount of waste.
"Today we have started working on the island. This is a very rare occasion, since usually the cleanup is on the shore. Thus, this expedition can eyed as unique. In previous seasons, volunteers set up routes and hiking trails in Karelia at the Paanayarvi National Park, the White Sea Petroglyphs archaeological complex, the Voitsky Padun waterfall. We have been watching those locations, and two factors make us happy: those places are popular with tourists, however, the amount of waste has not grown there," the press service quoted leader of the Clean Arctic environment project Andrey Nagibin as saying.
The project participants have noted there is not much waste in Karelia - which is not typical for Arctic regions. The cleanup featured about 80 people, including volunteers from Volgograd, Vladimir, Yaroslavl, Moscow. Despite heavy rain, the volunteers have managed to collect almost 500 kg of waste.
Over three seasons of the Clean Arctic project, the missions have featured about 6,000 participants, who have collected about 50 tons of waste and cleaned 163 hectares. The total cleaned area makes 491 hectares, where about 12,000 tons of waste has been collected.