New upcycling project is music to our ears.

The Buzz Project in Fort William enables young people to express their needs, wants and ideas with confidence, develop increased self-awareness and learn skills which will benefit them in education and the workplace. As part of their regular music sessions a group of young people decided to investigate an enterprise project linked to musically related waste items.

They have been upcycling parts of old instruments such as old drum sticks, guitar picks and the left over parts of strings when guitars are restrung. They have also been upcycling old instruments that are beyond repair and using them as décor around the premises. There are not many upcycling projects that focus on music, our understanding is that we are currently the only one locally. It is completely young person lead and they chose to do this as they felt that some things that were being put in the bin were too good to be just thrown away. The project not only teaches young people new skills in upcycling but it also encourages them to take active participation in waste reduction.

They have recently began a partnership with the Community Bike Kitchen, run by Lochaber Environmental Group (LEG) of the Highland Community Waste Partnership (HCWP). The Buzz Project would like to work with LEG to expand into recycling bike parts. 

Lesley Hawkins, HCWP Project Officer from LEG said, "I'm excited to learn about this new upcycling project happening in Fort William. The young people involved in the project have identified a fun niche and innovative solution to re-using instrument parts that might otherwise go to waste. Their vision to expand this into using cycle parts is really welcome and fits into the work of the Lochaber Environmental Group Community Bike Kitchen".

Mandy Cameron, Project Manager for The Buzz Project said, The upcycling project has been a recent initiative in The Buzz Project created by the young people. They have been working hard, learning new skills and creating new items from old. On a visit to the bike kitchen, our young people learnt about the work of the Lochaber Environmental Group and were inspired on how they could expand and develop this project using different materials. We are excited for this new partnership and can’t wait to see our young people’s ideas come to life.

The Buzz Project will be taking part in the Fort William Repair Cafe being held at New Connections, Waverley House, Fort William on the 7^th of October where they will be running a small workshop on how to restring guitars.

If you have any old instruments that you no longer need, you can donate them to Studio 2 either by popping in on a Thursday/Friday/Saturday evening or you can contact the project at info@thebuzzproject.org