MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Miami-Dade County generates more than 5 million tons of waste every year.
That’s nearly double the national average.
And we’re not alone, as many parts of the world are grappling with what to do with all the trash we make.
For the past 10 years, an orchestra from one of the poorest neighborhoods in Latin America has been touring the globe, inspiring people everywhere to be conscious of the waste they produce and finds ways to reduce and repurpose.
Beneath the towering presence of the Cape Florida lighthouse, a concert in the park fills the air with music made by minstrels from a faraway land who play with instruments made entirely of trash.
Favio Chavez is the Artistic Director and Founder of the Recycled Orchestra of Cateura, made famous in the 2015 documentary Landfill Harmonic.
“That’s the goal, for people to look at trash differently,” Chavez said, in Spanish.
The movie tells the story of how music brought hope and beauty to the children living near a landfill in a slum of Paraguay, when music teacher Chavez gifted them instruments made out of trash from the dump, and then taught them how to play them.
“In this community, a violin costs more than a house,” said Chavez. “And that’s where the idea came from, to use trash to make musical instruments.”
Since the enormous success of the film, the recycled orchestra now tours the world, sharing their music and message of visibility and conservation.
“When we make the instruments, what we try and do it make people pay attention to this trash,” he said. “If we don’t take care of it, it’s going to contaminate our world, but if we do take care of it, it can create beauty.”
South Florida, like many parts of the world, is in the grips of a waste crisis.
We are running out of space for our trash and it’s polluting our natural spaces.
That sense of urgency inspired the nonprofit Friends of Cape Florida to invite a delegation of 10 orchestra members to come down and play and inspire the next generation.
“This is where it starts,” said Friends of Cape Florida President Christina Bracken. “We need to get our young visitors early and excited about preserving what we have here.”
After the concert, the kids in the audience were given a hands-on lesson on how to make music with trash.
And it wasn’t just any trash, as it came from the 2,100 lbs. of marine debris recently picked up by volunteers from Old Rhodes Key in Biscayne National Park.
Fill-A-Bag founder Manny Rionda was there. He brought back pieces he thought could be given a second life and turned them into something beautiful.
“The orchestra is showcasing trash from their world, so we thought it might be an interesting idea to show the kind of trash that comes from our world,” said Rionda.
The kids understood the assignment
“I made it out of a tin can, a balloon and some beans,” said 10-year-old Angelique Cabrera, showing off a drum made from trash.
After a quick lesson with the instruments they just made, the students joined the orchestra on stage to show what is possible when you consider things from a different point of view.
“Trash has generated many opportunities for us,” said Chavez. “We’ve changed the concept of trash for these kids and their families, and more and more throughout the world.”
Their story is so moving, the Recycled Orchestra has caught the attention of music legends like Stevie Wonder and Metallica. Both have performed with them.
The story has even inspired Gloria Estefan to co-write the music and lyrics with her daughter, Emily, for a brand new musical “Basura” which is being produced about the orchestra.
The show is set to open in the spring of next year in Atlanta, with Tony Award–winning Alex Lacamore of Hamilton fame arranging the score. After a brief run in Atlanta, the show will move to Broadway.