Santiago, Chile 2008!!!

Hello everyone!!!

So this is my blog that I will be maintaining while I am in Santiago, Chile for Summer 2008! In case I haven't told you exactly what I will be doing there, let me provide you with a brief update. While my graduate program in Indiana has a very heavy focus on water resources, I did not find solid waste and recycling research as ubiquitous. Furthermore, I knew I really wanted to retun to South America for the summer, after truly enjoying my study abroad to Ecuador in 2005.

After much thought, I began to conduct research on my own of companies or organizations that are located in South America. I eventually narrowed my search to 2 organizaitons. One was a nongovernmental organization in Peru called Ciudad Saludable (Healthy City - http://www.ciudadsaludable.org/es/) which sets up solid waste/recycling systems from scratch in rural areas --- pretty amazing! The other was a private company in Santiago, Chile called RECYCLA (http://www.recycla.cl/) which was one of the first companies in Latin America to recycle electronic waste - also amazing!

In the end, I decided that I wanted to work with RECYCLA, as electronic waste is a new and emerging frontier everywhere --- but especially in countries like Chile that don't have any recycling legislation at all. RECYCLA is trying to work to develop some legislation, and also work to foster corporate social responsibility (CSR) for companies that generate electronic waste in Chile. Additionally they have educational outreach and awareness programs.

My role is to work on developing international relations among RECYCLA and other United States Companies, like Dell, that don't alwyas have the same takeback programs in countries outside the US and Europe. I will also be developing a commercial presentation in English to help RECYCLA win grant money for the Skoll Foundation. I hope I will be able to achieve all of these goals or at least make significant progress toward them well while I am in Chile this summer.

After my internship, which ends on August 1st (approximately) - I will be taking 2 weeks off to travel on my own! I haven't decided exactly where I am going yet, but I am going to develop my plans while I am working in Santiago.

If anyone has any thoughts/ideas please let me know! Collaboration is incredible and I value any input you have. I will be doing my best to keep this blog up to date and uploading pictures, etc....!
As always, I would always love to hear what is going on in your own awesome and busy lives, so if you get a chance please e-mail me and let me know (knudsen.laura@gmail.com) or post a comment here!

Thank you so much for all of your support and I look forward to keeping in touch with you!

Much love,

~Laura :)