Hazardous waste poses a major threat to the sustainable economic development of the BSR. Urgent needs arising from the Enlargement focus on boosting waste management efficiency, upgrading waste treatment infrastructure, building an administrative infrastructure to implement EU legislation, establishing a regional waste planning framework for balanced development and creating reliable investment perspectives. Failure to adopt a pro-active strategy in this critical area will result in waste streams following the path of least financial resistance, the prolongation of non-cohesive structures and the misdirection of investment initiatives. The key project objective was to enroll waste management authorities around the Baltic Sea into a coordinated effort to integrate the crucial issues of hazardous waste stream management and best practice waste infrastructure planning into the BSR spatial planning agenda and thereby provide sustainable waste stream management within the new BSR Economic Development Framework. This is underlined by the specific objectives of the five work packages. Achievements: A fully functional Waste Communication Platform (www.europeanwasteptatform.org) has successfully been set up host and present the key project outcomes. Together these achievements form the operative framework and the information resources needed to provide institutional effectiveness in waste stream management and waste infrastructure planning throughout the BSR: 1. BSR Waste Atlas: regional mapping of hazardous waste streams: arisings, deposits, transport modes and final destinations (GIS application backed by the HazWaste Inventory database developed throughout the project). The Atlas also features a comprehensive overview of capacities of hazardous waste facilities within the participating BSR areas.2. Aligned approach to hazwaste management among the participating waste authorities: uniform waste classification and monitoring, waste tracking and reporting systems3. Legislation catalogue: guide to specific EU hazwaste legislation and its transposition into national regulations 4. Administration guide. Key hazwasteadministrative functions in the participating BSR areas 4. Best practice guidance documents for treatment and handling of priority waste streams 5. Stakeholder involvement throughout the project and inclusion of facility profiles in the Waste Communication Platform 6. Regional Guidance Framework to facilitate transnational cooperation on hazwaste management infrastructure planning. Great emphasis has been made on the provision of high-quality, reliable and authorized waste stream data. The database is designed to offer investors reliable planning data and at the same time target investments to the real needs of the Region. The Final Symposium event held in Riga on May 31, 2007 confirmed the project’s strategy of introducing a transnational approach to the management of hazardous waste streams in the regional marketplace and contributed to strengthening institutional capacity in this field through enhanced East-West cooperation.This approach was greeted by both competent authorities and market stakeholders. By way of a final delivery a blueprint for the ongoing upkeep of the Waste Communication Platform and extension of hazwaste cooperation activities throughout the BSR was developed and backed by the provision of an interim 12-month solution – sponsored by the Ministry of the Environment of Schleswig-Holstein - to host ongoing cooperation until new funding resources are found.