Andrew Lappage has joined East London Waste Authority as managing director. He talks about his past role and future plans to Steve Eminton
In May this year, the well-known senior London waste officer and expert, Andrew Lappage FCIWM, moved from the north of the capital to the east, joining the East London Waste Authority (ELWA) as its new managing director.
He switched from the North London Waste Authority (NLWA) where he was appointed as head of waste strategy and contracts in 2001. In East London Mr Lappage succeeds Mark Ash who moved to Essex county council in 2017 as director of waste and environment, although more recently, Sharon Lea (previously at Birmingham city council) and then for the last two months Justin Jupp (previously at Newham London borough council) had been holding the ELWA reins on an interim basis.
Prior to joining the NLWA in January 2001, Mr Lappage already had experience working with Dacorum council in Hertfordshire and Waltham Forest in London.
Rules and regulations
In terms of London waste management and recycling experience, especially of local authority rules, regulations and politics, Mr Lappage agrees that he is well-versed. Even so, he notes that the move to ELWA is a big change for him with the authority operating under the second half of a long-term PFI contract with Renewi (formerly Shanks) as well as facing some different challenges on the ground to North London.
At the NLWA, his work involved strategy and operations for services for a population of 1.7 million, growing to two million during his time there.
Andrew Lappage is now managing director of the East London Waste Authority
Back in 2001 when Mr Lappage started in north London, the authority was just a disposal authority providing residual waste services and mostly running the waste into the Edmonton plant, but also to landfill by rail and road.
Then he lead the development of a joint waste strategy, which saw the authority help promote recycling and waste minimisation and develop an organics and food waste service, the latter initially through an IVC facility at Edmonton. The organics work was supported by the London Recycling Fund which also invested in the collection infrastructure for the boroughs.
Today the NLWA handles some 65,000 tonnes of organic waste collected by its boroughs as separate food, separate green and mixed food and green, all being treated at the IVC or third party compost or anaerobic digestion facilities. Next was the provision of MRF services for the boroughs, with around 115,000 tpa contracted now by the authority.
Additionally, the north London boroughs transferred the management of their re-use and recycling centres (HWRCs) to the authority to benefit from economies of scale.
Other services which Mr Lappage developed include the collection of WEEE from a zero base to the extent now that the NLWA even provides small WEEE banks, a collection service and “has in the past levered in very useful scrap metal income,” he remarks.
Refuse Disposal (Amenity) Act
At North London, he was also involved in the development of legislation around local authority services. “For example, under the Refuse Disposal (Amenity) Act 1978, it was the boroughs’ duty to run civic amenity sites and our duty to collect the residual. Then, since 1990 and the Environmental Protection Act, we had a duty to provide the service but the borough still had a duty to do it as well. NLWA and others lobbied for change and in 2012 the borough duty was repealed so that all sites in North London, bar one in Enfield, are now managed by NLWA.”
Mr Lappage says that “good inter-authority relationships between the waste authorities and the boroughs are essential. In North London I forged an agreement with Members and borough colleagues to govern inter-authority roles and workings until 2055 and brought in a new way of apportioning the levy. It means that the boroughs benefit from cheaper prices for recycling, higher for residual. Giving them a benefit financially when they deliver waste easier for the disposal authority to treat creates a business case for improved recycling.”
And, he believes that points surround this are of interest in the wider local authority arena. He observes that “other waste disposal authorities may be interested to note too that the statutory joint waste disposal authorities like NLWA and ELWA don’t have to pay recycling credits to their boroughs and, as levying bodies, are able to take a more holistic view with their boroughs on the nature of municipal waste management services and costs.”
Shanks’ Frog Island MBT plant at Rainham, where ELWA refuse is sent for treatment
Future plans
So, for East London, what are his plans? Mr Lappage says that although it is still early days in terms of him being in post and that although the Renewi (formerly Shanks) contract has nine years to run, the process for what happens after that time is on his agenda.
“What we have with the Renewi/Shanks award is a very early PFI (December 2002) self-monitoring contract. It serves one million plus residents of Barking & Dagenham, Havering, Newham and Redbridge. I’ll be working closely with Renewi to deliver the best outcomes we can from this contract.
“And I am now working to build a consensus locally with members and our communities as to what do we do next. We are starting to look at the strategy development and then procurement processes and the extent of the need for facilities, so nine years is not really a long time to do all that. Within the strategy work we’ll be doing some modelling as to how much waste we will be collecting and processing in what general form as we move to a more circular economy.”
Areas that will impact on the policy development will include a focus on population changes and commercial waste levels in east London. There will be scrutiny of the demography of the area plus a look at waste arisings and how this relates to the housing stock, he says.
Low-recycling rates
Recycling rates are relatively low in the ELWA area. But, Mr Lappage is quick to point out how the areas is “instantly disadvantaged by having to be measured by a weight-based target. We have 24-25% recycling and you have to factor in that there is very little green garden waste and we have significant other challenges in many parts of the area.
Andrew Lappage is in favour of a target “which is based on residual waste per household which would do away with the issue of green waste”
“What we do need to look at in the future is the extent to how we can maximise the separation of materials to a marketable quality.”
And, he is in favour of a target “which is based on residual waste per household which would do away with the issue of green waste and also the issue of lightweighting of other materials. It would also take away any potential conflict with EPR (extended producer responsibility).
“It’s a really exciting time at which to have moved to East London, with all these challenges as to how to capture resources (rather than just collect rubbish) and improve our Londoners’ quality of life at the same time.”
But, there is also the present to work with, and Mr Lappage declares.
“For now, we manage the existing contract and ensure we get value for money. We have a really good performance on landfill diversion and were over 92% last year. When the contract was let, the Waste Strategy 2000 had a target of 33% recycling, and so if we accept that densely-populated London boroughs will be below the national average we are not too far away from what was believed to be needed when the current contract was let.”
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Source: letsrecycle.com Waste Managment
