Over 50,000 pounds of trash have been removed from the Arctic in 2023 after a multilateral effort flooded critical northern ecosystems with volunteers.
Working during the brief Arctic summer, clean-up operations were carried out in Alaska, Greenland, Norway, and Iceland.
Nearly 2,000 volunteers were enlisted across the treaty nations of the Arctic Council, an inter-governmental panel on peaceful and sustainable use and protection of the Arctic zone formed by the nations that pierce its frozen borders, and the indigenous peoples that call it home.
The council is divided into working groups that address certain issues, and the Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment (PAME), founded in 1991, partnered with the Ocean Conservancy and various local groups like Keep Norway Clean to organize this sizable operation through its Arctic Cleanup initiative.
Group Cleans-up Enormous Amount of Trash Along Creek in Trumbull County(Opens in a new browser tab)
These annual clean-ups have removed over 100,000 pounds of trash between 2021 and 2023. The overwhelming majority of trash originates in the fishing industry, Keep Norway Clean reports.
Arctic cleanup is both challenging and costly, the government-funded nonprofit writes. Long distances, difficult-to-access areas, scattered populations, short cleanup seasons, and limited access to waste management, are the main challenges for voluntary cleanup in Arctic areas.
Fortunately though, the isolation of many Arctic areas also limits the entry points for waste to contaminate the region. Nearly all of it arrives via currents and surf on rocky beaches.
