TASS, August 28. The Clean Arctic public environmental project's volunteers completed a cleanup mission in Yakutia's town of Tiksi, located beyond the Arctic Circle, where Russia has the northernmost port, the project's press service said.
"Clean Arctic's missions continue in Tiksi since 2021," the press service said. "Federal volunteers are participating in them for the second time. Over one week of work, the volunteers have collected about 23.5 tons of scrap metal, 25 tons of solid municipal waste, and cleaned an area of more than 4 hectares. Volunteers from the Moscow, Novgorod, Yaroslavl, Khabarovsk Regions, have arrived to clean up the town and the port, which turns 90 this year. Local residents have joined them."
The mission featured also Yakutia's Governor Aisen Nikolaev, the press service noted. "Special attention is paid to Tiksi, since this town is Yakutia's sea gate," the governor said. "With the intensive development of the Northern Sea Route, it acquires strategic importance and becomes an important point on the ship traffic. At the same time, we must remember that the region's social and economic stability is impossible without care for the environment. Clean Arctic is not just an environmental and educational campaign, it is an important step towards preserving our nature."
The waste is mainly scrap metal, old metal barrels, old equipment cases, and a large amount of construction debris from demolished old abandoned houses. In addition to Tiksi, the Clean Arctic project will work this year in Yakutia's another four villages: Deputatsky, Saskylakh, Batagai and Ese-Haya. Over past three years, volunteers collected more than 850 tons of scrap metal in Yakutia, and cleaned an area of 31 hectares.