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Since 2008, with the European waste policy and France’s Grenelle Environment Round Table, firms have been encouraged to adopt waste prevention strategies. The aim of this article is to analyze the factors that determine companies’ implementation of these strategies. We use data from a survey conducted by one of the authors on management and prevention strategies of solid and non-hazardous waste for 404 French SMEs in 2014. The results show that the pressure and relationships with stakeholders (clients, suppliers and service providers) play an important role in companies’ decisions to adopt prevention strategies. In addition, having environmental accreditations and other company-specific characteristics significantly influence the implementation of waste-prevention strategies. In contrast, regulation pressures do not seem to drive companies to adopt waste prevention strategies.