Cllr Jacob Cable from the London borough of Hackney is the new Chair of North London Waste Authority (NLWA).
NLWA is the public body with the statutory duty to manage the waste and recycling services for two million north London residents. All decisions are made by NLWA’s 14 Members, who are elected representatives from the seven north London boroughs of Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Hackney, Haringey, Islington, and Waltham Forest.
Cllr Cable was appointed at the AGM yesterday, 25 June 2026, following a vote by Members. A Green Party member, Cllr Cable is the Cabinet Member for Climate, Clean Air and Transport.
“I am honoured to have been elected Chair of NLWA. My objective is to lead NLWA in an open and participatory way and ensure that we work to reduce waste in all its forms.”
Cllr Madeline Church (Green) from Enfield and Cllr Peter Zinkin (Conservative) from Barnet were elected as Vice-Chairs.
The annual report for 2025–26 was also approved yesterday by the Members. Achievements for the year include:
- A yearly spend of £93.9m against a £98.5m budget, with the resulting savings to be used to reduce future costs for the boroughs
- Food waste recycling rose significantly to 27,786 tonnes, driven by expanded collection services and new national requirements
- Recycling and reuse increased to 29.7% (with more than 83% of materials taken to Reuse and Recycling Centres recycled) while residual waste fell by more than 22,000 tonnes and zero waste was sent to landfill
- A recycling taskforce engaged 30,000 residents in targeted areas to increase recycling and reduce contamination
- A new four-year £1m community fund was launched
- EcoPark House, a new education and community centre, welcomed over 1,000 students in its first year
- Progress was made on the Authority’s commitment to recycling all materials in the UK by 2030
A major milestone for the last year was the adoption by all seven constituent boroughs of the North London Joint Waste Strategy 2025–2040, with ambitious targets including halving avoidable food waste, increasing reuse and recycling, and ensuring all recycling is processed in the UK.
By the year’s end, construction on the publicly owned Energy Recovery Facility (ERF) at Edmonton EcoPark was over 50% complete, with over 70% of the specialist equipment ready to be installed. While there have been delays, there continues to be steady and active progress on the construction site every day.
Meanwhile, NLWA worked closely with its operational arm, LondonEnergy Ltd to understand and plan for the consequences of the delay, and how the current plant can be kept operational for longer than originally intended.