RAMALLAH — Scrapcycle Solutions, a recycling start-up co-founded by Ibrahim Ghazal and Faris Abu Keshek near Ramallah in the West Bank, is responding to a worsening garbage crisis tied to Israeli movement restrictions imposed after the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel. As of 2026, the main garbage transfer point in Ramallah resembles a landfill because waste cannot be removed regularly.

Heightened Israeli checkpoints and barriers—925 documented by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs at the end of 2025, a 43% increase over the total recorded in the preceding two decades combined—have made transporting waste to the West Bank’s two landfills extremely difficult. Garbage trucks wait for hours or even days along roads, covered with tarps, for a chance to cross checkpoints. Ghazal, a mechanical engineer and co-founder, said, "They spend hours at the check points. The settlers sometimes attack the truck drivers. It's very difficult to transfer the waste from here."

Faris Abu Keshek estimates that approximately 750 tons of garbage have accumulated at the Ramallah transfer station. He also said the existing landfills in the West Bank will soon reach capacity and are not a permanent solution. The Palestinian Authority has long sought to open a third landfill in the center of the territory, and the Israeli military stated it is advancing on a construction permit for such a site in Judea and Samaria.

Ghazal described the restrictions as intentional pressure: "They want the people to feel the pressure. They don't want us to think that we can live comfortably. They want us to know that 'we can control where you go, we can control where your garbage goes, we control every aspect of your life. You have no freedom.'" Scrapcycle Solutions initially focused on recycling plastics, which make up about 16% of West Bank waste, and the founders say 72 local manufacturers could use their recycled plastic pellets.

The start-up has sought funding from international agencies, including the Japan International Cooperation Agency. Arthur Dong, professor of infrastructure finance at Georgetown University, said, "It's a recycling solution that is desperately needed because the West Bank is a very confined area and their landfills are pretty much at capacity. So from an environmental point of view and because of the Israeli occupation, it's a community that is in desperate need to address this long-term problem of how to dispose of waste."