Recycling rubble project scoops Earth Prize 2026 Middle East regional award
Gazan sisters Tala and Farah Mousa are recycling rubble into bricks for non-load-bearing applications.
Prototype recycled rubble brick made by The Earth Prize Middle East winners
© Tala and Farah MousaThe Earth Prize is an environmental competition for 13- to 19-year-olds, empowering young people with mentorship and funding across the seven regional winners.
These represent the regions of North America, Africa, Asia, Central and South America, Oceania and Southeast Asia, Europe and the Middle East. Each winning team receives US$12.5k to develop and implement their idea.
The Mousa sisters’ team ‘Build Hope – Palestine’ is turning rubble into reusable blocks and bringing young people together to rebuild their communities amid ongoing conflict.
They set out to develop a practical solution within the constraints around them.
Using simple and locally available materials, their process crushes and sieves debris from damaged buildings, then mixes it with binders such as clay, ash, or glass powder before moulding and drying it into blocks.
The project is designed to be scaleable, and through hands-on workshops, the sisters aim to bring together 100 young people to produce at least 200 blocks, while giving them the skills to share the process with many others.
Tala says, ‘The large amount of rubble and the lack of accessible rebuilding solutions inspire us to work on this project…It’s designed to be replicated by communities without heavy machinery or specialised infrastructure, and turn what was once destruction into a starting point for hope.’
Their team is the first-ever regional winner from Palestine, and is now in the running to be named the global winner. Public voting for the global winner opens on The Earth Prize website on Monday 18 May, the day after the final regional winner is announced.
