The importance of waste prevention is nowadays fully recognized and generally considered as a priority within EU, national and regional authorities waste management strategies and plans, but many efforts need still to be done. One of the targets sets in the 5th Environment Action Programme (EAP) was to reduce the generation of municipal waste per capita per year to the average 1985 EU level (300 kg) by the year 2000 and then stabilize it at that level. This target is far from being reached and it has not been repeated in the 6th EAP, thus remaining a priority of the 6th EAP and of the new Waste Directive 2008/98/CE.Pre-waste project is designed to improve the effectiveness of waste prevention policies in EU territories in order to significantly reduce waste production and hazardousness, through the close collaboration of local and regional authorities, public entities and other stakeholders. Pre-waste sub-objectives are: the definition of a common methodology forefficient regional waste prevention policies, the exchange of Good Practices (GPs), the assessment of waste prevention actions efficiency and monitoring.Partners have been selected among public entities directly involved in the planning or in the implementation of waste management policies according to their competences, e.g.: Marche Region-IT (LP), Ile-de-France Region Waste Management Observatory (ORDIF), Association of Cities&Regions for Recycling and for sustainable Resource management (ACR+), Municipality of Roquetas de Mar (ES),Municipality of Sofia (BG), Brussels Environment (IBGE), Public Cooperation Department of Ilfov County (RO), Municipality of Karlskrona (SE), Tampere Regional Solid Waste Management Ltd (FI) and WasteServ Malta.All partners are engaged in the selection of at least 50 GPs and in the identification of a shared methodology that enables regional/local authorities to implement an effective waste prevention policy in term of planning and implementation.In order to assess the transferability of one or more GPs in its own territory each partner carries out a feasibility study.Beside, common indicators and a web tool aimed at assessing the effectiveness of waste prevention actions and politics will be defined.As a final result, public entities, directly or indirectly involved on the project, will have an increased knowledge about good practices initiatives/policies experimented in Europe and competence on the evaluation of the waste prevention policies effectiveness, as to influence the design of local strategies for waste prevention. To support this, two joint interregional training sessions are foreseen. The organization of an European Conference and of 9 national events, plus the use of ACR+ network as well as the partners networks, ensure that Pre-waste results will be spread throughout European targeted audience. Achievements: Waste is a key environmental, social and economic issue and a growing problem. 3 billion tons of waste are thrown away in the EU annually, meaning about 600kg per European, and the trend is at a rise. Waste management has become increasingly sophisticated, as separate collection and recycling facilities have become common place and landfill and incineration standards have become more rigorous. The EU has recognized waste prevention as the top priority (waste hierarchy – 2008 Waste Framework Directive). However, even if the place of waste prevention grows within local and regional strategies, many efforts still need to be done.In this context, the PRE-WASTE project (2010-2012) addresses local and regional waste prevention policies with the aim to improve the effectiveness of existing policies and to significantly reduce waste production and the risks deriving there from. Main activities include the definition of a methodology for efficient waste prevention policies, the exchange of good practices, the definition of indicators to monitor waste prevention actions and the setting up of dedicated web tool.The project involves 10 EU partners who are committed to sharing their expertise in waste prevention: Marche Region–Project Leader (IT) with the support of SVIM (Regional Development Agency acting as Technical Secretariat), ORDIF–Ile-de-France Region Waste Management Observatory (FR), ACR+ Association of Cities and Regions for Recycling and Sustainable Resource Management, Municipality of Roquetas de Mar (ES), Municipality of Sofia (BG), IBGE–Brussels Environment (BE), Public Cooperation Department of Ilfov County (RO), Municipality of Karlskrona (SE), Tampere Regional Solid Waste Management Ltd (FI), WasteServ Malta (MT).Partners are deeply engaged to:•collect and share good practices, identify the best ones and analyze what are the key parameters to transfer them in other territories through the feasibility studies.•set up a web tool and a common methodology for local authorities to assess the impact of waste prevention policies thanks to a set of indicators.Since the beginning of the project, Pre-waste partners gathered and analysed more than 100 case studies related to waste prevention. Travelling books, stop pub stickers, campaigns and coaching to prevent waste, home and collective composting, refilling machines for water or detergents, and clothes library are some of the practices collected from 18 EU countries. Packaging, paper, bio-waste, bulky waste and others: all waste fractions are covered by these cases. From the 105 cases, 56 Good Practices were selected, about which the partners gathered more data. Recently, Partners selected more than 20 practices as the best examples (sest practices) of waste prevention across EU regions and they have started the development of feasibility studies in order to assess the transferability of one(or more) practice in its territory.Good Practices factsheets are available to all regional authorities on the project website (www.prewaste.eu).