Tala (17) and Farah (15) Mousa have been named as Middle East champions in The Earth Prize and will now face a public vote to decide who will be the global winners of one of the world’s most prestigious environmental awards.

The sisters and their family lost their home in Gaza after an Israeli strike last August and are currently living in a tent. They say they hope their approach could play a role in rebuilding Gaza from the debris of more than two years of war.

Experts from the University’s Concrete Technology Unit are widely recognised as leaders in the testing of construction materials, and Senior Lecturer Dr Tom Dyer says the Mousa sisters are deserving winners of the $12,500 award to help them develop and scale up their method.

He said: “Loss of life is clearly the most serious effect of war, but the loss of buildings and infrastructure is one which has massive long-term implications for areas affected by conflict. The idea of recycling rubble from wartime is, firstly, incredibly practical, because it makes use of material that would otherwise have to be cleared away.

“However, the award winners have seen that the nature of the way in which this material has been produced is the key reason why this is also a low environmental impact approach.

“Recycling of aggregate is now an established practice around the world, but in peacetime aggregates must by recycled through demolition and crushing, which use energy and release carbon dioxide. They have identified that, out of what is clearly their misfortune, the opportunity has been created to bypass these processes, reducing the carbon footprint significantly.”