Natālija Cudečka-Puriņa Winner of the BUP PhD Award 2019

2019-11-29

Dr. Natālija Cudečka-Puriņa, Liepaja University, is the winner of the BUP Award for best thesis in 2018 in the category Social Sciences and Humanities. Her thesis has the title Ensuring Municipal Waste Management Sustainability by Administration of Landfill Management Companies.

Natālija Cudecka-Purina’s thesis addresses a very timely and pressing sustainability problem, namely, waste management in the Baltic Sea Region. It explores practices that can help reduce the share of waste that goes into landfills. The research is guided by an interdisciplinary approach that combines local governance, economics and the natural science basis behind resource flows. By showing ways in which resources can be recycled instead of landfilled Dr. Cudecka-Purina contributes to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The publications Dr. Cudecka-Purina crafted in the context of this thesis bear testimony of her academic excellence. Finally, the thesis must be commended because it does not only contribute to the academic debates on waste management but it has also an applied component that helps practitioners in the field to make waste management in the Baltic Sea Region much more sustainable.