Outside the Paraguayan capital of Asunción there is a slum called Caetura, home to 40,000 people, and its beleaguered community is rife with poverty, drugs, and crime.

As many as 40% of children who grow up in Caetura never finish school because their parents pull them out to work.

The community faces another challenge: it serves as Asunción’s largest trash dump, where millions of pounds of garbage are deposited each day.

However, there a glimmer of hope emerging from among the trash. A small group of kids in Caetura are proving that beauty can come out of the harshest environments.

They are the members of the Recycled Orchestra and the focus of the documentary Landfill Harmonic.

Founded by environmental consultant and guitarist Favio Chávez, the orchestra plays on instruments made from trash.

Over the course of 10 years, the orchestra has grown from just a few musicians to over 35.

The students have even performed with heavy metal band Megadeth and with Metallica.

The orchestra has given kids a new chance at life and something to hold onto in a world filled with unpredictability and risk.

The orchestra’s impact stretches far beyond the community of Caetura. It’s forcing people to reexamine our fundamental understanding of musical instruments.

The teenage musicians of the Recycled Orchestra couldn’t possibly own something as valuable as a real violin or flute.

The instrument would be stolen or sold for drugs. Making the instruments out of trash means they can’t be bought or sold. It means the only thing that matters is the music.

It now takes 2 to 3 days to make a violin and about a week for a double-bass – though it took years to get to that point.

 “People are focusing on the music and not just the symbolism of the instrument itself. I think that’s a really posotive thing.”

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