Both Russian Federation and Kazakhstan are the countries which, on one hand, boast huge territory (1st and 9th largest countries in the world, accordingly), and, on the other hand, had experienced relatively small household waste during Soviet times (due to much smaller household consumption). As a result, the main way to handle waste in both countries was (and remains) the landfills; yet the situation had drastically changed during the past decade, and now the waste per person in these countries is close to the EU level. This lead to the lack of knowledge and competence in waste management, resulting in efficient practices in the field. It influences lower impact that EU initiatives on waste management and circular economy have on the environment.Though Russia and Kazakhstan have a very different score on Environmental Performance Index (52nd place and 101st place, accordingly), in terms of waste management, measured by environmental vitality, they have very similar scores: Russia scores 55.99 points and Kazakhstan – 53.35 points. This indicates systemic problems in creation of waste management infrastructure, including lack of specialists who can deal with the increasing and overwhelming amount of waste using holistic approachThe project aims to develop Waste management master programme that would be implemented in 6 Russian and Kazahkstan universities. The programme is based on learning-by-doing pedagogical techniques, and will be taught in Russian, Kazakh and English.The envisaged impact includes 50-70 master students annually enrolled in Waste management programme, not less, than 30 faculty members for Russian and Kazakhstan universities who had undergone train by trainer sessions by EU partners and internships in EU companies. Not less than 30 students participated in the EU internships.