We accompanied the Plastipaz project, bringing our creative workshop for environmental communication. Children and teenagers from local schools crafted musical instruments from waste, learned to play them, and composed a song to encourage the community to sort their waste and support this initiative by the signatories of the peace agreement. We then created an “Upcycling” sound mural, which was installed in the town park to raise awareness of the project and its goal of transforming the town’s waste management problems.

In line with the JAC’s goal of achieving a zero-waste project in the town, we conducted a workshop to identify the ideal communication channel for children and teenagers to develop a campaign encouraging the community to sort their waste. Through this exploration, we identified the marching band as the most important channel for the community, so we worked with students from the local school to create instruments for the band using recycled materials. They composed a song in the “despecho” rhythm to symbolically end their relationship with the landfill located at the entrance of the town.

The central focus of the Zero Waste Music Lab was urban instrument-making—the art of crafting instruments from waste materials and discarded objects. Over the years, much of our research has centered on developing functional instruments from waste materials, aiming to move beyond the merely anecdotal and decorative so that they serve a pedagogical and educational purpose. Children and adolescents from vulnerable backgrounds must have access to instruments that allow them to acquire musical knowledge, which is nearly impossible given that a professional instrument is practically a luxury in countries such as those in Latin America.