Professor David C Wilson began his career in Waste Management in 1974, researching his doctoral thesis on planning for municipal solid waste management, which led to the publication of his standard textbook Waste Management: Planning, Evaluation, Technologies by Oxford University Press (1981).

Since that time, DCW has always been active in strategic planning for waste management. He has been responsible for developing national strategies for waste management in Poland, Turkey, Philippines, Viet Nam, Hungary and Romania; and for strategic planning projects in India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, China, Ukraine and the Russian Federation. He chaired the 4 UK Waste Strategies Group workshop in January 2007.

Northern Ireland: DCW began work on development of the Waste Management Strategy for the Department of the Environment in January 1997. He was involved at each stage of strategy development and implementation, including the first Strategy published in March 2000, and culminating in the launch of the revised Strategy ‘Towards Resource Management’ in March 2006.

Hong Kong: DCW was resident project manager in 1982-83 for the development of a computerised waste management planning model, which was used to develop the Waste Disposal Plan, published in 1989. He worked from 1987 on a number of facility implementation projects, including most recently the materials recovery and recycling facility (2000). DCW was responsible for a ground-breaking study from 1994-96 to prepare a comprehensive waste reduction strategy for Hong Kong; the resulting 10-year plan was adopted by the HK Government in 1998. More recently, he acted as an advisor to the team developing a new Policy Framework for the Management of Municipal Solid Waste (2005-2014). He is currently advising on the development of a producer responsibility framework for glass containers.

Prof David C Wilson’s unrivalled international experience in this field was the basis for ERM being selected to prepare the World Bank’s definitive Strategic Planning Guide for Municipal Solid Waste Management, for which he was the principal author. The SPG provides a step-by-step guide to the planning process and to the substantial issues that need to be considered.