Cheaper, stronger, available and environmental - for Gaza chicken farmers seeking to deliver eggs unbroken, there is everything to like about trays made from recycled paper waste.
They are the work of Akram Al-Amour, who began recycling paper waste to try to reduce the emissions caused by burning it, find an alternative to plastic and contribute to improving economic conditions in a territory where half of the 2.3 million population is unemployed.
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A Palestinian worker collects newly made egg trays, manufactured from recycled paper waste in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, November 10, 2022
(Photo: REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa)
"Today, we are recycling materials that are usually thrown into the garbage and nobody benefited from into something that our farmers and our country need," he said.
Since he began work in 2019, the project has grown to employ seven people and he has ambitions to export if conditions allow.
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A Palestinian worker drags a stall filled with egg trays made of recycled paper waste in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, November 10, 2022
(Photo: REUTERS/Bassam Massoud)
For now, the prime need is domestic as local farmers have struggled to secure supplies.
Chicken-farm owner Mohammad Abu Mustafa said an advantage of Amour's product was its availability, as well as its price and quality.
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A Palestinian worker sits in front of newly made egg trays, manufactured from recycled paper waste, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, November 10, 2022
(Photo: REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa)
"The imported is weak but the local is strong," Abu Mustafa said.
Citing security concerns with Gaza's Islamist Hamas rulers, Israel and Egypt maintains restrictions along their frontiers with the enclave.
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A Palestinian worker prepares paper waste during a process to recycle it into egg trays in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, November 10, 2022
(Photo: REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa)