Drawing on a non-academic journey from operational frontline roles, Sebastian Frost explores why the waste and resources sector needs open, visible career pathways that value both experience and education – and how CIWM plays a critical role in connecting them.
The waste and resources sector is built on complexity. It sits at the intersection of logistics, regulation, public behaviour, finance and environmental responsibility.
Yet when we talk about careers in the industry, the narrative can still feel narrow – as though there is a single, ‘correct’ route in.
In reality, the sector does not succeed because of one pathway. It succeeds because of many.
Some people enter through academic routes, bringing research capability, policy insight and strategic thinking. Others – like me – come up through the frontline, learning the industry where it actually happens.
The challenge is not which route people take, but whether those routes are connected and open.
Learning the industry where it actually happens
I started in a frontline operational role at transfer stations. My early days were not spent in meetings or working on spreadsheets; they were spent using plant equipment, clearing waste spillages, shovelling debris and doing whatever was needed to keep the site safe and operational.
That included wearing full hazmat suits to deal with waste that had broken down into a black, liquid sludge – a smell so strong and distinctive that it has never left me. It was unpleasant, physical work, but it was also where I learned the reality of the job.
Compliance is not theoretical when you are standing in it. Health and safety decisions are not abstract when you are operating heavy plant or cleaning hazardous material. Mistakes have consequences – financial, regulatory and reputational, and in some cases potentially fatal.
When you have been there and done it, it is much harder for people to pull the wool over your eyes. You recognise the corners that get cut and a ‘job and knock’ mentality because you have seen it from the inside. That perspective is invaluable as you progress, but the real test is not becoming absorbed into it yourself.
The trick is to deliberately distance yourself from that mentality and distinguish yourself from it, like a rock chiselled cleanly from the quarry it came from. Know the reality, understand the pressures, but choose higher standards. That is how you earn trust and credibility as you move forward.
Those early roles taught me how systems really work: logistics under pressure, safe plant operation, the realities of waste composition and the need to get things right the first time.
Later, as a Senior Weighbridge Clerk and through broader operational and back-office roles, including a secondment to the Business Services Manager, I became involved in improving systems, resolving billing issues, reducing downtime and strengthening planned preventative maintenance and compliance – work that directly improved reliability and organisational performance.
This grounding gave me context. More importantly, it gave me lasting respect for the people who keep services running day in, day out – loaders, drivers, sweepers and supervisors whose experience is often invisible but absolutely essential.
Standing out on the frontline
Progression did not come from doing the bare minimum. It came from deliberately going beyond it.
If the target was to process 15 containers in a day, I aimed to process 20. If I were asked to wash down one bay, I would wash down every bay. Small choices compound over time.
The key to progressing is refusing to settle into the lowest acceptable standard. Go the extra mile, and do not be afraid to share your work and successes so that others can see what good practice looks like.
Just as important is a shift in mentality from the ‘I’ to the ‘we’. Progression is rarely about individual heroics. Saying ‘I did this’ quickly reaches a ceiling. Saying ‘we achieved this’ brings people with you.
Know your place within the great wheel and be content to serve it, because real progress comes from strengthening the whole, not elevating yourself above it – and that is where leadership truly begins, long before you have the job title.
Why pathways matter more than labels
Curiosity opened doors for me:
- Why do some sites perform better than others?
- Why do issues keep recurring even when procedures exist?
- Why do some changes land well, while others fail immediately?
Asking those questions led to more responsibility, acting-up roles, and eventually managing people, processes and performance. Over time, operational delivery became operational leadership.
But like many people progressing through non-academic routes, I eventually reached a ceiling. Not because I lacked capability, but because experience on its own can be difficult to translate without a recognised framework.
This is where the sector can unintentionally stifle future talent.
Too often, we use credentials as a proxy for potential. We filter people out based on what they do not have, rather than what they consistently demonstrate: judgement, resilience, curiosity and the ability to deliver.
I saw this first-hand when I was seconded into a role that formally required a degree. I delivered in the role, but when I made my intention clear to apply permanently, I was told I could not – solely because I did not hold that qualification. The role went to someone else, and I was later asked to support them in their new post.
I have also seen the reverse: appointing someone with a degree to a non-academic, operationally grounded role, only to find that academic credentials alone were not enough without practical understanding.
These experiences are not arguments against degrees. Academic routes are vital. But no single route produces everything the sector needs.
What matters is recognising potential early – and backing it.
Seeing potential – and acting on it
If we are serious about developing the next generation of leaders, we have to get better at spotting potential, not just qualifications.
Every organisation has them: the keen person who keeps asking questions, volunteers for responsibility and genuinely wants to make things better. Too often, that person is overlooked because they do not yet have the ‘right’ letters after their name.
Not everyone is a diamond in the rough – and that is fine. But the industry consistently misses out on those who are capable of shaping its future if we never take the time to find them, invest in them and help them develop.
Potential rarely arrives polished. More often, it shows up as persistence, curiosity and a willingness to step forward. If we only reward what already looks finished, we overlook the people who could be exceptional with the right support.
Leaders should be actively looking for those people. Not to give them shortcuts, but to provide them with pathways: access to training, mentoring, professional development and time to grow. Very few people arrive fully formed. Most are built through experience, guidance and trust.
Finding and polishing those diamonds is not a matter of luck. It is a leadership responsibility.
From the frontline to chartered
By the time I reached senior operational roles, I had delivered complex services, managed teams and overseen compliance under intense scrutiny. What I did not yet have was a professional framework that translated that experience into something easily understood beyond my organisation.
This is where CIWM plays a critical role.
CIWM provides professional standards, recognition and development across the sector. It gives people from different backgrounds – academic and non-academic – a shared professional language and a clear benchmark for competence.
For me, CIWM Chartership did not replace experience; it built on it. It formalised what I had learned, highlighted where I needed to develop further, and gave me confidence to operate at senior and strategic levels.
However, professional recognition only has meaning if people understand what it represents in practice. Having spent many years across both the private and public sectors, I have seen how Chartership is often misunderstood or undervalued.
Saying you are a Chartered Member of CIWM can be met with curious looks or even the assumption that it is an ego trip rather than something practical. The response is often less about professional standards and more about immediate outcomes: what savings have you made, what income have you generated, what difference have you delivered this year?
In reality, that challenge is fair. Professional status on its own is meaningless unless it translates into measurable value: efficiency gains, reduced downtime, stronger compliance, better performance and better outcomes for the organisations and communities we serve.
That is not a weakness of chartership; it is its purpose. Chartership should not be a badge on a business card. It should be evidence that you can turn knowledge into results and lead real-world improvements.
That transition – from frontline practitioner to chartered professional who delivers tangible outcomes – is one the sector needs to make far more visible.
Mentors, challenge and persistence
I would not be where I am today without mentors.
At key moments in my career, people took the time to guide me, challenge me and support me – sometimes by telling me things I did not particularly want to hear. That support mattered most during periods of doubt or setback.
Training and development have not always come easily. Often, I had to ask – and ask again. No one manages your career for you. Standing out requires effort, consistency and humility.
My biggest professional challenge was becoming chartered. My first application was unsuccessful. That setback forced a year of reflection, self-learning and development, supported by CIWM and mentors. When I resubmitted and succeeded, it meant something – because I knew I had reached the standard required.
That experience reinforced what professional recognition should be: supportive, stretching and genuinely developmental.
Life, grounding and the long view
I could have chosen an academic route. Instead, I chose to be in a band. That decision did not come with a clear career plan, but it shaped who I am creatively and personally.
Meeting my wife and becoming a parent grounded me throughout my career. I entered the industry in debt, with no assets, no deposit and a baby on the way. Today, I am a Chartered Waste Manager, a homeowner and a parent to four healthy children.
That journey was not luck – it was probability.
If you work hard, treat people well, stay curious and deliver results, the direction of travel is fairly predictable. It may not always be fast or smooth, but over time, it moves one way.
Up.
Operational reality still matters
The sector does not need more spreadsheets produced in isolation by people who have never operated plant equipment, cleared spillages or stood in the middle of a working site. It needs leaders who understand how decisions land on the ground – specifically, at 6 am on a wet Tuesday morning.
At the same time, it needs academic insight, research capability and strategic thinking. The future lies in combining these strengths, not placing them in opposition.
CIWM, visibility and giving back
One of the sector’s biggest challenges is not talent – it is awareness.
Many people in operational roles simply do not know what CIWM is, what it does, or how professional membership and chartership could support their progression. Without that visibility, capable people self-exclude.
CIWM opens doors. It provides professional identity, structured development, mentoring opportunities and a shared language across the sector.
As I progress, giving back matters more and more. Mentorship, visibility and honest conversations are part of that responsibility. If sharing my journey helps someone else see a pathway they did not know existed, then it is worth doing.
I would not have been given the opportunity to write this article, share my story and hopefully make a difference – even if only a small one – without CIWM. That, more than anything, is a true reflection of its value and purpose: creating platforms, pathways and confidence for people who might otherwise go unseen.
Looking ahead
The waste and resources sector is facing unprecedented change – from food waste reform and extended producer responsibility to digital tracking and decarbonisation. Meeting those challenges will require diverse skills, grounded leadership and open pathways.
The future of the sector depends not on choosing between academic or non-academic routes, but on valuing both – and making the pathways between them clear.
There is more than one way in – and the sector will only be as strong as the pathways we choose to keep open.
