Russia is cleaning up the planet, removing 4,000 tons of scrap metal from the Arctic

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – “Ecological cleanup units … have completed more than 90 percent of the 2017 plan aimed at ecological clearing of the Arctic region … The total amount of the collected scrap metal is more than 3,900 tonnes,” Bulgakov said.

The Russian official added that more than 2,300 tonnes of the scrap metal have already been taken away from islands in the Arctic region.

The importance of the Arctic region has been increasing over recent years, as the melting of the region’s ice cover opened the possibility for further exploration of petroleum reserves in the area, as well as for navigation through the Northern Sea Route.