One South American man is turning trash into an orchestral treasure

This is a story about turning trash into treasure.

It centres around a tiny South American community on the outskirts of Asuncion, Paraguay that is built around a landfill, which has 1,000 tonnes of garbage dumped into it every day.

There are only 20,000 people living in Cateura and they work as trash pickers at the landfill. They collect anything and everything that can be recycled. Their houses are made from recycled garbage. The children’s toys are made from recycled garbage. Their clothes are made from clothing found in the landfill. And so are their musical instruments.

Ten years ago Favio Chavez started a small children’s orchestra with instruments made from oil drums, paint cans, roasting pans, cutlery, wood pallets — you name it. All of the instruments were pulled from the giant pile of garbage.

Chavez believed children needed music and the instruments could be imitations of the real thing. If they learned on the recycled instruments – the power of music would make them understand we are all the same. For him music is a basic need and his mission is to give that need to the children of Cateura.

There are 300 students in the recycled orchestra. A dozen or so travel at a time from all over the world. They carry their message that because you have nothing, it’s not an excuse to do nothing.

They’ve met royalty — and even toured South America with Metallica, playing on stage with the heavy metal band.

Even though these children have travelled the world — Paraguay is their home. They spread their message so they can return to the slum with the hope of building a proper schoolhouse and a future.

The orchestra was able to come to Vancouver, where they’ll be playing at a handful of schools and two fundraising concerts, after a local charity Instruments Beyond Borders raised the money to bring them here.

On Friday morning they captivated the students and teachers at Van Tech Secondary, even inviting some of them on stage to play the “recycled” version of the instruments they know.

Grade 10 student A-C Barrio-Stewart plays violin — and tried the recycled violin, which was made of paint cans and a roasting pan and a fork.

“It was different,” she says. “Their playing is fantastic — especially on garbage instruments. Watching them has made me want to play better and if I try harder maybe I can be as good as them.”

Grade 11 student Quinn Angell tried their cello.

“Showing what you can do with so little is definitely something that resonates with me and makes me want to try harder to succeed.”

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