MOSCOW, June 15. /TASS/. Volunteers of the Clean Arctic public environmental project, together with the Arktikugol Trust Compnay, are cleaning the northern village of Piramida, located on the Spitsbergen archipelago. They prepared for transportation to the mainland for further processing the first 30 tons of scrap metal collected in the mining town, the project's press service said.

"Spitsbergen is a place with special rules due to its status. Our environmental mission demonstrates that Russia's presence in the archipelago is not only about coal and tourists, it is also about true responsibility for the territory. The scrap metal that the Clean Arctic volunteers have collected will be transported to the mainland for further processing," the press service quoted the Clean Arctic public environmental project's leader Andrey Nagibin as saying.

The Piramida settlement on the Spitsbergen archipelago was mothballed in 1998 as coal mining stopped there due to a lack of profit, to falling coal prices, rising costs and underground fires. However, the housing stock and infrastructures were preserved. For the recent 20 years, Arktikugol has been developing tourism there. Piramida, in fact, is an open-air museum of the Soviet era.

"The Russian volunteers who arrived at Piramida have helped us to clean the village. Nothing of the kind has happened here over 95 years of the Arktikugol Trust Company. Thank you for your contribution to our presence in the archipelago," the trust company's CEO Ildar Neverov said.

Earlier, a cleanup mission took place in Barentsburg, where volunteers dismantled an old heating main. They managed to collect more than 50 cubic meters of wood and glass wool, having cleaned more than 100 square meters of the territory. The volunteers have completed five cleanups in the archipelago.

About the project

The Clean Arctic Public Environmental Project has been cleaning the northern territories since 2021. Waste removal is a complex technological work, where the movement teams work carefully minding the Arctic nature. Over all seasons, the project's 9,923volunteers have collected 22,045 tons of waste and cleaned 1,101 hectares of land. The project's general partner is the Rosatom State Corporation, and TASS is the general information partner.