Professor Margaret Bates has been elected as the next Junior Vice President of the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM).

Following presentations to the General Council meeting on Tuesday (1 April), CIWM trustees elected Bates as the next Junior Vice President. She will take up her position in October this year and will become President in 2016.

According to CIWM, the ballot was ‘very close’, with Bates pipping Professor David Wilson, visiting Professor in Waste Management at Imperial College London, to the post.

Professor of Sustainable Wastes Management at Northampton University, Bates is presently the Chair of the Institution's Scientific & Technical Committee and has expertise in landfill, energy from waste, resource efficiency, and waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE).

Bates has also advised two African governments (Kenya and Nigeria) on the development of policy relating to waste management and has delivered training on developing effective policy and regulation for several more (through the United Nations University).

In 2013, she featured in Resource’s Hot 100 list as the 30th most influential person in the waste and resources industry. Members of the industry voted Bates to the list "for her work in Africa, leading the developing world’s WEEE revolution".

Speaking of her appointment, Bates said: "I hope to be able to raise the awareness of the positive sides of our industry showing that waste management is the solution, not the problem.

"I want to utilise this network to increase the profile and membership of CIWM, for example, in areas such as electrical and electronic manufacture, where waste and resource management has an increasingly high profile.

"Work in WEEE/ewaste has also evolved, showing the importance of effective policy and regulation and also highlighting the role that independent expertise can take. Our members need independent voices that represent them, and are seen to represent them."

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