Background Waste-management costs continue to rise in the face of ever-increasing waste production and the increasingly hazardous nature of many waste streams. An emerging approach to waste management has been based on the polluter pays principle. However, the most successful management is likely to be based on exploiting the potential resources of current waste streams, rather than simply treating them as a problem. The European Commission's thematic strategy on waste prevention and recycling aims to promote more sustainable patterns of resource use in the EU. It advocates the waste hierarchy, which provides the following order of preferred approaches to waste management: 1. Prevent waste in the first place; 2. Re-use the product; 3. Recycle or compost the material; 4. Recover energy through incineration; and 5. Product disposal in landfill. Achieving sustainable management of waste is an important challenge for the Lazio Region. It is not only the country’s second highest producer of municipal waste, but also the one where the highest proportion of waste (80%) is still sent to landfill. The region contains Europe’s largest landfill site. Around 90% of the waste treated in mechanical biological treatment facilities is unsorted. Only a small quota of waste collected through municipal sorting schemes is effectively destined for recycling. Objectives The Mo.re. & Mo.re. project aimed to maximise waste recovery, re-use and recycling in the Lazio region. It specifically sought to promote possible uses for production waste as secondary raw materials by bridging the gap between supply and demand. It thus aimed to achieve a substantial reduction of the environmental burden generated by waste production in the region. The project sought to promote recycling markets that would enable market pressures and incentives to deliver efficient waste management. It sought to improve the sorting of waste streams, enhance processes which can make use of recycled waste in the manufacture of new products and/or materials, and facilitate the matching up of supply and demand of recycled materials. Mo.re. & Mo.re. aimed to deliver its actions in two pilot areas that would be representative of the larger regional territory: Castelli Romani - a metropolitan area located close to Rome – and the Province of Rieti – a small rural community. The two areas together cover several types of land use and activity, including different types of residential developments, heavy industrial districts, a thriving local crafts sector, as well as a highly valued built and natural heritage. Results The Mo.re. & Mo.re. project successfully created an online tool to match up the supply and demand of secondary raw materials in the Lazio Region. The project's main innovativeness lies in the fact that it identified entire supply chains for the reclaiming and recycling of waste, through the involvement of all operators of the relevant sectors, dealing with the reuse of waste derived from municipal collection and separation schemes. The key output of the project has been an on-line trading platform for secondary raw materials. This has been designed to help enable users to find and purchase materials that can be recovered and recycled by other companies in the Lazio Region. This should not only help promote the use of secondary rather than primary raw materials in the purchasing companies, but also provide an economic incentive to recycle for the seller. The platform is supported by a dynamic map that shows the supply and demand trends of different types of waste. The project covered the contrasting pilot areas of Castelli Romani and Rieti Province. It also incorporated actions in the adjacent area of Pomezia, where important industries are located for both the supply and demand of some of the key waste materials identified. To inform delivery of these outputs, the project mapped all the businesses operating in different sectors in the region, created a dedicated database listing over 1,500 contacts. This initial data served to determine the absorption capacity of locally produced waste by means of interviews with local businesses, which then led to define 40 different waste supply chains. It then conducted an analysis of the capacity of the local productive sector to improve its waste management practices, delivering six feasibility studies for the improvement of the productive processes. The project organised nine roundtables to identify and discuss the key challenges to resource recycling and recovery in different waste management chains with key stakeholders. It drafted Guidelines for Local Authorities for the implementation of virtuous and efficient waste management procedures with local companies. It also explored investment frameworks to support businesses working within the waste treatment/re-use sector wishing to invest in the relevant areas. Information Days and Support Desks were established to promote development of the market in secondary raw materials. However, use of the online waste stock exchange has thus far been slow and it is not clear that this tool will be a sustainable tool in the long-run. The project through the waste management process produced the following positive environmental results: CO2eq emission reduction by 12,5%; Ecological footprint reduction by 9 %; Waste production reduction by 20 %; Waste disposal reduction by 20 %.Furthermore the 6 feasibility studies prepared show that each intervention in the waste management chain proposed has also beneficial financial implications. The ratio between management costs and economical benefits of the measures proposed is of 132%. Further, the investment frameworks prepared highlight concrete business opportunities for operators seeking to invest. Further information on the project can be found in the project's layman report and After-LIFE Communication Plan (see "Read more" section).