INSTRUMENTS RECYCLED FOR RUBBISH

To most people, empty tins, bottle caps and pieces of metal are rubbish. To the Cateura Orchestra of
Recycled Instruments, they mean music.

Cateura is the site of Paraguay's largest landfill, where 1,500 tonnes of rubbish are delivered every day.
More than 2,000 local families are "rubbish pickers", who make a living by gathering things to sell. This
community is one of South America's poorest. Nearly half of the children never finish school because they
need to work picking rubbish.

Music entered Cateura's life in 2006, when Favio Chávez, a guitarist environmentalist, was working with
rubbish pickers on recycling issues. He wanted to teach music to their children, but there weren't enough
instruments. Nicolás Gómez, a rubbish picker and a carpenter, helped Chávez find the solution: make
instruments from things found in the landfill.

Gómez created ingenious instruments. He reshaped tins to make flutes and saxophones, using bottle caps for
their key buttons. He turned tins and metal bowls into guitars, violins and cellos, and made drums from large
oil tins.

More than 100 kids have learned music on these instruments. Because of their interest and dedication,
Chávez established the Cateura Orchestra of Recycled Instruments. It's got about 20 members, all between
the ages of 12 and 20, and plays music as varied as Beethoven, the Beatles, Paraguayan folk music and
Brazilian hits.

For Chávez, the orchestra is about more than music. It demonstrates the possibility of people improving their
lives. The orchestra, which has performed in South America and Europe, is also an effective ambassador for
recycling. As Chávez says, "Music played on an instrument made of recycled materials has more impact
than the best environmental theory."

The orchestra has received a lot of press and media coverage, and was the subject of Landfill Harmonic, a
documentary by Paraguayan filmmaker Alejandra Amarilla. This publicity has brought the orchestra fame -
along with donations of money and new instruments. The question now being asked is whether this
orchestra will remain unique if it gives up playing instruments made from rubbish.