Create Your Own Recycled Orchestra

Image: Markham 2013

Recycling music is just one way in which we can create an awareness of environmental sustainability in society today using music. Another way, which more directly relates to the environment, is the idea of recycling garbage to create musical instruments.

Lets look at ‘The Recycled Orchestra’ created by Favio Chaves in 2006. This ‘orchestra’ was created in Cateura, Paraguay. The town of Cateura is close to one of Paraguay’s largest landfills, where waste collection companies bring waste from all over the area.

Chaves and a garbage picker named Nicolas Gomez decided to experiment and use the community’s garbage to create instruments. This was the perfect solution for Chaves to help the children of Cateura learn music, when he did not have the resources to purchase new instruments himself.

‘Old pieces of metal became violins. An old fork used for eating now held the strings of the violin in place. Large, empty metal containers that once held oil now made the body of a cello. The tops of bottles made good keys to cover holes in the clarinet.’ – Spotlight 2017

Gradually, Chaves and Gomez discovered which type of recycled material more accurately replicated the sounds of costly musical instruments to further improve the orchestra.

Video: Landfill Harmonic 2012

This example delivers a strong message that should be more prominent in society today. Through recycling, we can create opportunities that we would not normally consider achievable before. It is inspiring to see the impact that just two individuals can have on both the environment and society. While this example is from 2006 and in Paraguay, it would nonetheless be useful in our society today. There are many young children in Australia who don’t have the opportunity to learn music because of financial restraints, and this is just one way in which we can break this barrier, while simultaneously helping the environment.

Have a go and create your own recycled orchestra!

For more information, please read:

Markham, D 2013, 'Recycled Orchestra turns trash into music and despair into hope in Paraguayan Slums', Treehugger, 4 April, accessed 10 September 2018, <https://www.treehugger.com/gadgets/landfill-harmonic-turns-trash-music-their-recycled-orchestra.html>.

Spotlight 2017, ‘Recycling for Music’, Spotlight, 1 October, accessed 10 September 2018, <https://spotlightenglish.com/listen/recycling-for-music>.

Author: Isabella Mazzarolo