TASS, August 21. Volunteers of the Clean Arctic federal project collected more than 300 tons of waste near Stary Varandey in the Nenets Autonomous Region, Governor Yuri Bezdudny, who joined the volunteers, reported on Telegram.
"Today I've joined the annual Clean Arctic federal mission. Together with eco-volunteers from all over the country, we were collecting scrap metal and bulky waste on the Barents Sea coast, in Stary Varandey. Over just ten days of the Arctic cleanup, volunteers from Naryan-Mar, Omsk, Yekaterinburg, Moscow and other cities have collected more than 300 tons of waste," the governor wrote.
The Arctic cleanup mission featured volunteers from Yekaterinburg, Murmansk, Sochi, Chelyabinsk, Perm, Kazan, Moscow, Vladimir, Arkhangelsk and the Nenets Autonomous Region.
The governor's press service explained to TASS, the initiative to clean up that area came from Alexander Bulanov. In 2022, he voluntarily joined the special military operation and died in military action. "This place was chosen in memory of Alexander Bulanov. The expedition has become an annual mission, and volunteers come here from all over the country and, of course, from Naryan-Mar - they collect waste, which has remained there over decades. This waste is not ours, but we are responsible to future generations for the Arctic to be clean," the press service quoted the governor as saying.
In 2022, volunteers collected about 200 tons of waste near Stary Varandey. Those were mostly rusty barrels and scrap metal. Earlier, in that location used to be various geological exploration expeditions, and nowadays these companies no longer exist. "A certain time ago there was a natural disaster zone. From the sea side, large amounts of water have thrown the waste over a huge area. It will take another five years to clean up the shift workers' town there," the press service quoted head of the region's department of natural resources, ecology and agriculture, Albert Chabdarov, as saying.
Under the Clean Arctic project, on August 26, volunteers will participate in a cleanup day in the Nenets Region to clean the forest, and on September 15 the region will host the EcoArctic 2023 forum.