Music From Trash

By Dr. Marciene Mattleman

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - At LandFillHarmonicMovie.com, you can visit an inspirational project and video about Cateura, a town in Paraguay where trash collection is the major occupation and more than 40% of the children don't finish school because their parents need them to work.

To keep the kids from playing in the landfill, an environmental engineer with a musical background decided to teach them music. Instruments were needed and one of the garbage pickers experimented with recycling materials from the landfill. String and wind instruments were made from oil cans and forks, bottle caps have been retrieved.

Parents began to see that music was keeping kids out of trouble and today the orchestra, with more than 35 players, is known in many countries, mostly through social media, and will have a world tour in 2014.

The world generates about a billion tons of garbage a year and the recycled orchestra project brings attention to the issues of poverty and pollution and a message of hope.