Mal Williams
CEO, Cylch-Wales Community Recycling Network
Mal Williams has been the CEO of Cylch since its inception in 1998, set up ahead of the creation of the Welsh Assembly in 1999. Cylch was a partner in the authorship of the Wales Waste Strategy Wise about Waste published in 2002. Cylch's own Strategy called Cleanstream® -A Resource Management Strategy for Wales (2000) advocating source separation and kerbside-sort as a precondition of a recycling collection operation, was influential in the Wales Strategy production.
Mal's career has been very varied, starting out as an RAF Navigator followed by various employments in the hospitality industry including running a casino and his own restaurant before turning to teaching, youth work and Youth justice prior to focussing on recycling. His "Green interests started when he started teaching in 1978 and he joined the Ecology Party, forming and running the Folkestone and Hythe Branch until 1981 - his one and only skirmish with politics.
Managing change in the face of environmental threats has become his passion and Resource Conservation his expertise over the last thirty years. He has travelled the world "seeking a MRF that works" only to be totally disappointed in every case and relishes his chairmanship of the Campaign for Real Recycling as a real mission. He firmly believes that it is social rather than mechanical engineering solutions that are required to achieve the change to sustainable resource management that the planet now demands if humans are to survive. "We need to re-educate the citizens to more careful ways with our precious resources - not sell them wheelie bins so that they continue to be careless!"
Mal is a passionate Social Entrepreneur, believing that Social Enterprise is the business model of the 21st Century - hand-designed for sustainability, answering to the demands of triple bottom line accounting by law. He also believes it vital for the Sector to be able to access independent finance if it is to be really effective in the way it can be.
Educated mostly in Cardiff Mal has a degree in Economics and Mathematics and professional qualifications in teaching, teaching special needs, youth work, youth justice and various specialties in counselling . His experience involved a great deal of financial and change management leading to an interest in Company Law, Charity Law and various aspects of company formation and governance.
He is a founder member of the Zero Waste International Alliance planning group and has facilitated many conferences and events promoting that theme.
