Volunteers collect about 30 tons of waste on Arctic island
ARKHANGELSK, August 18. /TASS/. Volunteers collected on the Vaygach Island, which is located between the Kara and Barents Seas, about 30 tons of waste, the Arkhangelsk Region Governor's Center told TASS. The expedition worked on Cape Bolvansky Nos and a local polar station for one month.
"A team of ecological expedition, organized by the Arkhangelsk Region Governor's Center and the MIREA Russian Technological University, has returned to Arkhangelsk from the Vaygach Island," the center said. "Volunteers from Moscow, Vyborg, Surgut and Belgorod have worked there for longer than one month."
The group of six people was tasked to clean the polar station's territory. On January 1, 2023, an accommodation module burned down at the Fyodorov weather station, where have remained deformed metals amid burnt roof beams and collapsed bricks.
Additionally, the volunteers moved 80 200-liter barrels that have remained there since the Soviet times. They pumped remaining fuel into new barrels, sealed them and moved outside the station's territory. The volunteers have cleaned an old landfill, processed wooden waste, collected and transported broken glass, slate, and metal structures.
The team used structures, remaining at the station, to make a 20-meter-high fence to protect the polar station from polar bears.
The national hydrometeorology service's northern branch, Sevhydromet, will transport the collected waste from the Vaygach Island as a part of the project to upgrade the Fyodorov polar station.
