MOSCOW, September 23. /TASS/. Uploading to vessels of the scrap metal, which the Clean Arctic mission’s volunteers have collected in Yakutia, began, the mission’s press center said, adding the melting will be done in Komsomolsk-on-Amur.
"Today, in Yakutsk has begun uploading of the scrap metal, collected near Tiksi during the Clean Arctic large-scale mission," the press center said. "About 435 tonnes have been delivered by the M-53 barge to the Nizhny Bestyakh cargo terminal. Pressed metal will be packed in containers, which will be delivered by railroad to Komsomolsk-on-Amur for further melting."
Over six weeks of the cleanup mission, the Clean Arctic volunteers cleaned more than 60 hectares, removed 600 tonnes of scrap metal, 150 cubic meters of plastics and almost 3,000 tin barrels. Big cleaning projects are due in Komi, Karelia, the Murmansk and Arkhangelsk regions. An expedition continues on the Novaya Zemlya Archipelago.
"The river shipping company is very happy to participate in the project, because the Arctic cleanup mission’s authors are Captain of the 50 Let Pobedy nuclear-powered Arctic class icebreaker Dmitry Lobusov and Gennady Antokhin (Captain on FESCO’s ships from 1982 to 2012)," the press center quoted CEO of the Lena United River Shipping Company Sergey Larionov as saying. "In future, we, of course, will continue this work, to clean all the Arctic districts in the region. We will follow up where this metal will go. The Clean Arctic project is known as a full-cycle project."
The Clean Arctic program, presented at the Public Chamber on July 5, has been widely supported, including by the president’s ecology envoy Sergeн Ivanov, the nature watchdog Rosprirodnadzor, volunteer and public organizations, scientific community and by the Arctic regions’ governors.