This Gaza business is rubbish

Recycling plastics has become a lifeline for many in the Gaza Strip

Many Palestinians in the Gaza Strip gather plastics from rubbish dumps ready for it to be recycled [Mohammed Asad/Middle East Monitor]

With unemployment rates rising in the beleaguered Gaza Strip, many are turning to collecting plastic items from rubbish sites and selling them to recycling centres.

Eyad Al-Shurfa, owner of the Friends of the Environment factory, said, “It is nice to use plastic and recycle it, as it does not decompose. That is why we established our factory.”

1kg

of plastic produces 10 metres of hose

There are five such factories in the Strip, Eyad told MEMO, adding that electricity cuts have severely hindered the other plants making his the most efficient.

“We collect over 20 types of plastic and plastic bags, and employ more than 25 employees. We grind the plastic and recycle it to make black hoses used to water agricultural crops or the plastic tubes used to cover electric wires,” he added.

Many Palestinians in the Gaza Strip gather plastics from rubbish dumps ready for it to be recycled [Mohammed Asad/Middle East Monitor]

Unless otherwise stated in the article above, this work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean? For other permissions, please contact us.