MOSCOW, June 20. Waste shipping from hard-to-reach Arctic locations could be solved by a system of incentive for shipowners involved in the Northern Supplies program, leader of the Clean Arctic environmental project Andrey Nagibin told TASS.
The issue of transporting waste from hard-to-reach areas is extremely important. This is a key problem in Arctic cleanup missions to collect waste that has accumulated there since the Soviet times. Due to the high transportation cost, the waste becomes "precious". Thus, environment and social activists have been working on a solution to this problem.
"It should be arranged so that whenever they bring something there, they should also take something back <...>. For shipowners, engaged in Northern Supplies, there should be a system of incentives so that they could ship whatever has been collected there. We've collected a lot, but we are unable to take everything out. The return freight is extremely expensive. This problem exists and it needs to be settled at the federal level," he told TASS.
Northern Supplies is a program for uninterrupted supply of basic vital goods to the Far North. Deliveries there are subject to a number of restrictions in difficult climate conditions. Carriers use air, river and sea transport, including along the Northern Sea Route.
About the Clean Arctic project
The Clean Arctic project began in 2021. Over this time, 7,700 people have collected 19,800 tons of waste, and cleaned more than 700 hectares of Arctic land.