CIWM’s new president, Professor David Wilson, has warned against any “softening” of the waste industry’s regulatory framework.
In his inaugural speech on 17 October, Wilson said the industry, in the face of public sector budget cuts, must not “lose sight of where [it has] come from, that the service exists first and foremost to protect public health”.
He said CIWM’s priorities were to ensure that, following Brexit, the industry has “continuity of the strong regulations on which the very existence of the waste and resources industry depends” and to continue the “fight against waste crime”.
Wilson called for a “focus on the 3Rs – reduce, reuse, recycle – and on the shift from the linear model to a circular economy where resource efficiency and productivity is key”.
Wilson is a senior environmental scientist and has had a long career in waste and resource management consultancy in both the UK and internationally.
He has worked on municipal solid wastes, hazardous wastes, national and city-wide waste management strategies, behaviour change for waste prevention, sector recycling in developing countries, institutional capacity building and evidence-based policy making.
In 2006 Wilson was awarded an MBE for services to waste management in the UK and Europe.