Dr Nia Owen

Trosolwyg

I joined the School from industry, and have over 15 years' experience in the waste sector.  I have been guest lecturing at the School since completing my PhD in 2009.  I spent 10 years working for the environmental consultancy Ricardo Energy & Environment, as a Principal Consultant and Knowledge Leader for Circular Economy and Resource Efficiency, where I was involved in the bidding and delivery of a range of projects for private and public sector clients in the UK and internationally including:

• feasibility studies for a range of waste management facilities including materials recovery facilties;
• procurement support for waste contracts;
• waste composition studies for a range of waste types including municipal, commercial & industrial, and construction & demolition waste streams;
• waste strategy development; and
• circular economy business models.

Prior to joining Ricardo, I was a member of the waste regulation team at the Environment Agency, and was involved in the development and implementation of end of waste criteria (quality protocols) for a range of waste streams including secondary aggregates, recycled aggregates, compost and digestate.

I completed my PhD at Cardiff University as part of the Centre for Research into Energy, Waste and the Environent (CREWE), via a Knowledge Transfer Partnership funded project.  My PhD involved developing a waste composition protocol to assess the overall household waste composition from the local authorities delivering waste to a waste management company, evaluating the capture rates of the existing kerbside scheme to identify areas for improvement, and assess how changes to the kerbside collection scheme would impact on waste composition, and thus impact on MRF design and performance.  I then subsequently led on the design, construction and commissioning of a a 50,000 t/yr material recovery facility to process municipal waste at the company partner’s facility.

I am a Chartered Waste Manager, and an elected member of the Chartered Institute of Waste Management’s (CIWM) Welsh Centre Council, and has recently been appointed to CIWMs Education, Training & Membership Committee.