Background In 1995, European citizens generated on average 474 kg of municipal waste. This amount rose to 542 kg per person in 2010, and a further increase to 680 kg per person is expected by 2020. The current trend corresponds to an increase of almost 15% in less than 20 years. In spite of efforts made during the past few years to improve waste management, most of the waste generated (59% in EU-27 in 2010) is sent to landfills or incinerated. Several types of pollution, including greenhouse gas emissions (carbon dioxide and methane) and water pollution, result from landfills. The net GHG emissions from the management of municipal waste is projected to decline by around 84 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent by 2020 (compared with 1990 figures) in the EU plus Norway and Switzerland. In 2007, GHG emissions from waste management (including wastewater management) represented 2.6% of the total GHG emissions in the EU15. Waste management, moreover, is costly, and in recent years many municipalities have assessed the cost effectiveness of their systems. The focus has been on optimising collection routes, taking into account the cost, health and environmental impacts. Objectives The LIFE EWAS project aims to foster innovation in waste management by demonstrating the potential of new information technologies to optimise current EU waste management practices and to establish a way forward for the adoption of a standard and more sustainable model. The project will also study the current waste management systems of the regions involved in order to identify ways of making them more sustainable waste More specifically, the project aims to highlight successful waste prevention and collection activities to promote their wider adoption across Europe. EWAS aims to ensure sustainable management of natural resources and waste, emphasising the importance of energy efficiency and the reduction of GHG emissions, noise and traffic congestion during the collection and transportation of waste. Such an approach is compliant with the objectives of the EU 2020 strategy. The project actions will extend the uptake of innovative waste collection methodologies using low-invasive technologies that will modernise municipal waste management. These actions, which will be carried out in the municipalities of Seville (Spain) and Chania (Greece), will include: Creating an online citizens platform to raise awareness and foster recycling; Establishing standard waste management technologies for collecting garbage – i.e. sensors that control the filling levels, dynamic routes, etc.; and Setting up an online global platform for stakeholders to improve management waste collection that includes best practices, reference data and aggregated open data from the waste management tools. Expected results: Reduction of the cost of waste management activities by 15-30% and GHG emissions by over 10%; Detailed analysis of existing waste collection methodologies and European legislative frameworks and the new opportunities using ICT tools; Integrated ICT solution to increase waste management efficiency that will be assessed using different usability and performance indicators and by conducting surveys of the pilot users and external citizens; Innovative waste management methodologies based on advanced ICT Tools that will reduce GHG emissions, noise pollution and costs; Impact report including environmental, economic, operational and awareness factors; and Exploitation report including a complete plan for applying the new waste management methodologies using ICT.