TASS, August 14. The Clean Arctic project's volunteers in a week-long cleanup mission in Chukotka's Pevek and Anadyr collected more than 85 tons of scrap metal and a big amount of household waste, the project's press service said, adding the mission featured 160 volunteers.
"In Chukotka's capital [Anadyr], 70 volunteers cleaned the tundra zone - the territory adjacent to the highway near the reservoir on the Kazachka River. They collected 3.4 tons of waste - mostly scrap metal and household waste. Earlier, volunteers cleaned the coastal area in Pevek. They collected about 40 cubic meters of solid municipal waste and 85.5 tons of scrap metal," the press service reported.
The Clean Arctic federal project started in 2021. Its objective is to clean up the Arctic territories from waste accumulated there in the Soviet times' intensive development of the Arctic. Over three seasons, about 6,000 volunteers from Russia and abroad have removed almost 12,000 tons of various waste.
"The waste, especially metal, has been accumulating in our region for decades, and nowadays it is a major threat to the environment. In 2021, the Clean Arctic project began in Chukotka - it features volunteers from our district and other regions. More than 1,400 tons of waste have been collected to date, and about 1,200 tons of scrap metal have been transported for further processing," Chukotka's Governor Vladislav Kuznetsov said.
The cleanup mission in Chukotka featured most active volunteers. "It is incredible to get to the very East of Russia. I have been connected with the Arctic only indirectly, but my parents did live in the Arctic areas, and since childhood I have been given the funny nickname Umka (name of a polar bear cub from a popular cartoon), and ever since then life has kept me close to polar bears and Arctic regions," Nikita Matyushenkov, one of the volunteers, said.