Position of rubbish in South America (6)
I believe the answer is:
status
'position' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'rubbish in south america' is the wordplay.
'rubbish' becomes 'tat' (I've seen this before).
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'south' becomes 's' (synonyms).
'america' becomes 'us' (abbreviation for the United States).
's'+'us'='sus'
'tat' put inside 'sus' is 'STATUS'.
'of' is the link.
(Other definitions for status that I've seen before include "Social rank" , "Class" , "Rank or position in society" , "High rank or prestige" , "Relative social standing" .)