A few days ago, World Challenge interviewed Fernando Nilo (Recycla founder) and he provided great insights about the company…
“Being a part of the World Challenge shoot was not only a great honour and privilege, but it is a great opportunity for us to show the entire world how this social enterprise was born and how it functions today.
We're on way to the planet rescue
We feel very proud to have given testimony on how we apply the Triple Bottom Line model day in and day out at RECYCLA. We got to show how we create opportunities and employment for people with penal records, giving them a chance to reintegrate themselves into society. And we could tell the world how we make all kinds of alliances with our client base in order to recycle electrical appliances, giving a new life to some of the most toxic waste to the environment.
We have installed recycling bins at some of the most important schools and universities in Chile, through which we hope to begin a process of bringing environmental consciousness to the student body. We have also created green jobs opportunities within that same segment of the student population.
Innovation is the soul of RECYCLA – regardless of the fact that we have constantly increased the amount of E-waste recycled – it is innovation that turns us into a social enterprise. Our team is dedicated to the stewardship of nature and the environment. One of our main objectives is to generate environmental consciousness in our society because only 5% of E-waste is salvaged and recycled whereas the rest ends up in the garbage dump poisoning our land.”
World Challenge is a global competition aimed at finding projects from around the world that have shown enterprise and innovation at a grass roots level.
Safely disposing of E-waste from broken computers and other outmoded electronic gadgets is becoming a bigger problem as the world becomes ever more wired. The chemicals and rare metals inside our laptops and phones are particularly harmful to the environment, and simply throwing them away is a waste of precious resources that then need to be replaced through fresh mining. ‘Recycla’ is the first and only electronic waste recycling social enterprise in Latin America. The company aims to tackle the problem of the eight million mobile phones and one million computers that are discarded in Chile annually. They are dismantled and separated into recyclable materials and toxic waste that can be disposed of safely.
