The project focuses on the management of the Baltic Sea environment, prepares for and implements small-scale pilot projects of modern Waste Management (WM) and pays particular attention to environmental hotspots in coastal areas.The programme area (PA) exhibits a major and unsustainable imbalance when applying the WM “hierarchy” (see 2.1). For example in Poland some 95% of waste goes to landfill with considerable negative environmental impacts as a result, whereas only 3% of the waste in Scandinavia goes to landfills. The entire programme area falls under the EU directives that state that waste volumes should be stabilised by 2012 and decline after 2020. Organic waste has great negative environmental impacts as disposal but if sorted and processed both is a sustainable and cost efficient source of energy.In the BSR and the PA there is a lack of 1) Joint cross-border cooperation structures to enhance local preparedness and response 2) Thoroughly disseminated good practices 3) Actions for cross-border Capacity- and Competence building 4) Institutional platforms reducing the above-mentioned imbalance in system approach 5) Joint actions to create sustainable development conditions.The overall objective of the project is to seize the potential of organic waste as a source of sustainable energy. To reach that objective there is an urgent need to transfer the knowledge from areas of modern WM systems to environmental hot spots in the PA. Guided by EU Directives and the waste hierarchy the partners will jointly build strategies and action plans on improving WM and biogas production in the PA. The project will disseminate modern household WM to raise awareness of the hierarchy by targeting households via municipalities.The expected result is that the knowledge transfer and joint development in this project becomes best practice and have long term effects in the whole SB area. The success factor of improving the WM situation relies on capacity building and knowledge transfer to change attitudes in the two target groups, households and municipalities. The project aims to ensure that the project results have a catalytic effect that integrates the PA, bridges exchange and know-how and harmonises WM. To achieve the objective the project defines the following actions; 1) Transfer and Development of Knowledge 2) Waste Management connected to Energy and 3) Jointly developed Pilot Projects. The organisation South Baltic Sustainable Waste Management Association, covering the entire PA, will be set up to ensure the durable project results.The potential positive impact from this project will be found in: A) Increased household sorting B) less waste produced C) Increased production of biogas D) reduction of landfills with corresponding decrease in methane leakage and E) environmental mitigation of the ground water and the Baltic Sea. The motto is: save the planet – earn money Achievements: The project is approaching its end, and a lots of results have been generated and presented lately. The partnership and cooperation has grown and is now very strong and appreciated by partners. This was particularly proved during the halftime conference in Koszalin in May, that was a success. The aim was to summarize what the project has achieved so far and create a point of departure for rest of the project time.Particularly considered as a success has been the possibility to use the project cooperation to support and react on the new polish legislation on waste management. A seminar was arranged in Szczecin in January, that was well visited and appreciated. As a follow up to the new knowledge the polish partners obtained waste plans and fees from Kristianstad municipality were translated to polish and discussed on detailed level in connection to a study visit. In March a work-shop for defining the needs and possibilities for a “Baltic Sea Waste Management Cooperation” was held in Gdansk, jointly with the project Reco. National and international organizations on waste management were present, and the results show that there is a need to fulfill, and many driving forces to take advantage of. Ideas on how to proceed were suggested, and is now under planning / work. During the reporting period, contacts with Kaliningrad has been worked on more intensively, and the associated organsiation Ecat is now involved in the planning of a knowledge transfer seminar in Kaliningrad during next reporting period. During the period a web based newsletter has been designed. Two editions have been produced and distributed, each in four language versions. The web-page and Facebook page has been continuously updated. The university studies has focused on continued literature search and compilation of international experience and regional studies on source separation systems for food waste and recyclable material, as well as important regional characteristics of waste management An executive summary was distributed during the project meeting in Koszalin, and all partners asked to leave their comments and contribution. In the individual partner projects the status is as following: VaSyd/Sysav: A new concept for source sorting has been tried out and evaluated. The concept has been improved and the new concept will be tested in the larger area in autumn 2012. Much energy has been put in spreading information about the project and the finding so far.Kristianstad waste management company has used the results from the previously made waste characterization to design and perform targeted information campaigns in Kristianstad.Koszalin: Ecological workshops for students and adults took place in February, and in spring five study visits to Regional Recycling Centre in Sianow were organised, Within the NSR-project, all 15 sorting campaigns have been performed in phase 1 and 8 in phase 2 at the selected SME:s. Each of the sorting campaigns include a strategic workshop meeting with the SME.Szczecin has had co-operation with Swedish experts who design modern recycling centers in the Skåne region. Experts visited Szczecin and a study visit to see the newest recycling centers in South Sweden was arranged. The building permits for modernization of 3 existing EKOPORTs in Szczecin has been obtained and tendering procedures has taken place. Construction works is planned to start in the second half of July 2012.During the last reporting periods reports have been written, a final coference was held and extensive information activities presenting the project results have been undertaken. In the final period the construction of a waste recycling facility in Szczecin has been finalized.