TASS, May 22. The Clean Arctic project opened the third season in Karelia on Sunday, when Russia marked the Polar Explorer's Day. Till December, Clean Arctic will organize 30 expeditions, the project's press service said.

"The plan for the current year is to organize cleanup missions at a twice bigger area of the Russian North so that to return it into the Arctic ecosystem," the press service quoted Russia's Minister for Development of the Far East and Arctic Alexey Chekunov as saying. "This work is the effort of thousands of volunteers from across the country, the involvement of regional authorities and major companies working in the Arctic."

"Due to this joint effort, we can say with confidence that the project with every year is growing to become the biggest public initiative to clean up the Arctic," he added.

In May-November, more than 30 expeditions are due in the Russian Arctic's all nine districts. In Karelia, on Sunday, the project's volunteers started working at the White Sea Petroglyphs archaeological monument: they will continue cleaning eco-trails and tourist sites from dead wood and waste. On the White Sea's southern coast, in Rastnavolok, the volunteers are sorting the abandoned industrial waste. Another cleanup location is near the Voitsky Padun waterfall, where they will organize an observation deck at the waterfall's top. The mission in Belomorsk is due to continue to the end of May, and at the Voitsky Padun waterfall - to mid-June.

"It is very symbolic that the third season has kicked off on the Polar Explorer's Day," leader of the Clean Arctic project office Andrey Nagibin said. "We are not at the North Pole today, we are at the southernmost point of the Arctic zone in the effort to help the Arctic nature to regain its beauty and purity."

"On behalf of our team, I am happy to announce that this year we will also double the number of participants," he added. "We also plan new locations in the Arctic's most remote places."

About project

The project's purpose is to clean the Arctic territories from the waste, accumulated there since the Soviet times' exploration of that region. The missions feature volunteers from both Russia and abroad. Over past two seasons, the Clean Arctic's volunteers cleaned 110 hectares and removed more than 5,000 tons of waste. More than 3,000 people have participated in the project.