Music World in Hazel Dell recently hosted its fourth annual free string exchange event, which is an initiative aimed at reducing the amount of waste generated by old instrument strings. Matt Gohlke, the co-owner and general manager of the shop, was inspired to take action after learning that an estimated 1.5 million pounds of instrument string metal end up in landfills each year because they are not accepted through local recycling programs.
To address this issue, Gohlke partnered with TerraCycle and guitar string manufacturer D’Addario to organize the event. During the promotion, Music World staff replaced the strings on customers’ instruments, and TerraCycle recycled the old ones. The event raised awareness about recycling and reducing landfill waste while also benefiting members of the community who didn’t want to pay for restringing themselves.
This year’s event was a success, with over 40 sets of strings provided by D’Addario and many customers taking advantage of the promotion to have their instruments restrung at Music World. One loyal customer named Derek Neiman praised the shop for always doing a great job and decided to participate in the promotion even though he usually restrings his guitar himself.
Photographer Taylor Balkom contributed to this story by capturing images of musicians enjoying their newly restrung instruments during the promotion.