Background The increasing production of waste and its disposal constitutes a serious environmental, social and economic problem for the EU. It is an issue of great concern that waste volumes continue to grow, despite the continuous design and implementation of advanced waste management schemes. The Waste Framework Directive (WFD) and the EU Waste Strategy (EUWS) have set waste prevention as a priority issue and waste prevention has been the main objective of both national and EU waste management policies for many years. Nevertheless, limited progress has been made so far in transforming this objective into practical action. EU and national targets have not been met and prevention measures are seldom considered as part of waste management, where the focus is invariably on waste recycling and recovery. Objectives The WASP Tool project aims to prevent the production of waste through the development and proactive implementation of waste prevention strategies at the local authority level. The overall objective is to investigate, demonstrate and optimise the waste prevention potential of three Mediterranean municipalities, covering different geographic and waste policy contexts in Greece and Cyprus. Following a review and evaluation of existing waste prevention activities in other countries, the project will concentrate on developing a web-based decision support tool (the WASP Tool) that will allow local authorities to select and implement the optimum waste prevention programmes for their local circumstances. The three participating municipalities (two in Greece and one in Cyprus) will use the WASP Tool on a pilot basis, to design and implement local waste prevention strategies and the results will be used to further refine the tool. In addition, in each of the participating municipalities, the project will implement, monitor and evaluate four waste prevention actions (two of which will be home composting and food waste reduction). Finally, communication and dissemination activities regarding the WASP Tool and waste prevention in general will be designed and implemented. Expected results: The expected results of the project include: The identification and evaluation of the most efficient waste prevention actions that have been used throughout the EU; The design and development of an internet-based waste prevention decision support tool (WASP Tool) that will contain all available information on waste prevention actions, and will allow local authorities to select and implement optimum customised waste prevention programmes and prepare waste prevention plans; The pilot development and implementation of three waste prevention strategies by the participating local authorities, with four priority waste prevention actions carried out as part of each waste prevention strategy; The delivery of 300 home compost bins and training for the respective homeowners; The implementation of training and dissemination activities on the WASP Tool and waste prevention in general.