Maturity in circular raw materials management and industrial recycling
Your material circularity measured, then turned into a costed industrial roadmap.
10 themes, a 5-level scale. And the action that moves each level to the next.
The framework’s 10 themes, already written from L1 to L5. One company, one business unit, or 300 at once.
Maturity in circular raw materials management and industrial recycling
10 themes, 5-level scale.
Nordhavn Industries
53 / 100
They measure their maturity with Datamensio
An example
This could be your situation.
Take one company as an example: three sites, three spreadsheets, no shared answer.
Nobody can consolidate.
Nordhavn Industries, 2,400 people in Hamburg, Lyon and Porto. A client asks where the group stands. Each site answers in its own spreadsheet, with its own scales.
Three weeks, a single base.
One Datamensio maturity framework · materials circularity and industrial recycling assessment launched across all three sites at once, from the managers’ interview notes. The framework was already written, its 10 themes and levels L1 to L5 too.
Two costs avoided before being committed.
A score of 53 out of 100, with the gap concentrated on three themes. The AI companion spotted that two actions duplicated those of another audit. The committee report took one sentence to request.
What it saved them
- 3sites measured on the same base, instead of three questionnaires to reconcile
- 2duplicate actions caught before the spend
- 1committee report, with no manual rework
These figures are an example. They could be yours.
The standard imposes processes. Datamensio says where you stand.
01
The framework is already written
Themes, questions and levels L1 to L5, all written. You do not start from an empty spreadsheet.
02
The score lands the same day
Online, by self-assessment link or in interview. Theme by theme, comparable over time.
03
The gap becomes a costed plan
Every step up carries its action. The AI prioritises on expected effect, not on the order of the standard.
04
Progress can be demonstrated
Campaign after campaign, against your target and against your own past. That is what your board asks for.
The maturity scale
One level, the next, and the action that links the two.
It is this mechanism (a level, a higher level, and the action that connects the two) that turns an observation into a trajectory.
Are production offcuts and rejects sorted and recovered as material?
- N1
Offcuts go into a single skip. No separation by material, the destination of flows is unknown.
- N2
Sorting exists for the most visible flows, on the initiative of certain teams. Volumes are not measured by material.
- N3
Sorting by material is defined by workstation, volumes are weighed and tracked, a share of offcuts is fed back into processes.
- N4
Material recovery is built into line management, with targets by reference, tracking of quality losses and traceability of reintegrated batches.
- N5
Reintegration rates are reviewed periodically with suppliers and recyclers, deviations trigger documented changes to design or process.
Action to move from L2 to L3
Define the sorting instruction by workstation with dedicated containers by material, install weighing on the main flows and build tracking of sorted volumes into the site’s weekly performance review.
« With Datamensio, we meet our objectives far more efficiently. The ERDF inspection services and our supervising ministry particularly appreciated an approach that gives them reliable data. »
Director, CCI 94CCI Île-de-France
« We believe this is the most suitable solution to scale our transformation project and measure impact according to our needs. »
Maja SucekChief Operating Officer, Interreg Danube
Rarely on its own
Frameworks combine. Put several together to cover your business, or have the AI write yours.
Take your first measurement
What this framework covers
Material circularity is not a commitment, it is a chain of technical decisions. It starts at design, when you choose an alloy, a polymer, a bonded assembly rather than a bolted one. It continues in procurement, with the share of recycled material built into specifications and the securing of a secondary supply. It plays out in production, on scrap rates, source separation, and internal recovery of offcuts. It ends at end of life, with take-back schemes, remanufacturing and batch traceability.
In practice, management runs into simple questions that are rarely settled. What is the real share of recycled material in your products, measured rather than estimated? Are your rejects recovered internally, sold mixed, or treated as waste for lack of upstream sorting? Do your designers work to an enforceable rule on dismantlability, or a recommendation that the production schedule overrides? Many sites know what they send to the skip, very few know what happens to the material.
The context has fundamentally changed. The EU Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation introduces the digital product passport, which requires reliable material data at component level. Recycled content requirements are tightening sector by sector, starting with packaging, batteries and vehicles. One common confusion still needs clearing up: circularity is not just recycling. Reuse, repair, refurbishment and extending service life deliver greater material gains, but require a different industrial organisation.
A maturity assessment does not ask whether you are compliant. It asks what level of control you are at, theme by theme, and what action moves you to the next level. The difference is stark on a subject where most practices are not enforceable: the same company can be advanced on recovering its internal offcuts and absent on ecodesign. The score by theme makes this gap visible, and the comparison between business units shows which site has already solved what others are still searching for.
The framework is ready to use and adapts to your sector. The AI adjusts the themes, questions and levels to your process (foundry, plastics processing, assembly, food industry), or builds a variant from your internal documents: material balances, procurement specifications, site reports.
Reference standard: Datamensio maturity framework · materials circularity and industrial recycling
The themes assessed
Circularity strategy and governance
Existence of a formalised material trajectory, targets by site and product range, accountability to a named function, trade-offs between material cost and circularity.
Flow knowledge and material balance
Mapping of inputs and outputs, measurement granularity (site, line, reference), reliability of weighing data, share of virgin versus secondary material.
Ecodesign and material choice
Enforceable design rules, dismantlability, reduction in the number of materials used, elimination of non-separable assemblies, substitution of critical materials.
Procurement and secondary material sourcing
Recycled content requirements in specifications, qualification of secondary material suppliers, securing of volumes, management of quality variance.
Control of production scrap and offcuts
Scrap rate by line, source separation, separation of mixed streams, internal recovery (grinding, remelting, reintegration), acceptable quality losses.
Reuse, repair and remanufacturing
Take-back schemes, dismantling capability, spare parts and refurbishment, extended service life, associated service models.
Recycling channels and end destinations
Contracted end destinations, knowledge of the actual destination of flows, material recovery rate versus energy recovery, exported flows.
Traceability and material data
Batch identification, component-level traceability, preparation for the digital product passport, systems used and interoperability with ERP or MES.
Indicators and performance management
Indicators tracked, review frequency, comparison across sites and over time, integration into industrial management reviews.
Skills, partnerships and ecosystem
Training of design and production teams, cooperation with suppliers and recyclers, inter-company loops and local pooling of flows.
A short version of the framework is available for the online self-assessment.
Frequently asked questions
Does this assessment lead to a certification?
No. No body certifies material circularity in an overall sense. The assessment measures your level of maturity, theme by theme, and produces an action plan. It usefully feeds into environmental management processes and client requirements.
How is this different from a waste audit or a material balance?
A material balance quantifies flows at a given point in time. A waste audit checks compliance of treatment and registers. The maturity assessment evaluates your management practices: design, procurement, production, traceability, and indicates the trajectory for improving each one.
How long does the assessment take?
The short version takes 20 to 30 minutes for an industrial or CSR manager to complete. The full version involves several contributors (design, procurement, production, HSE) and generally spans one to two weeks, most of the time being spent on data collection.
Does the framework adapt to our process?
Yes. The material issues of a foundry, a plastics processor and an assembler do not overlap. You can amend questions and levels, add your own themes, or let the AI build a variant from your material balances and procurement specifications.
Can several sites be compared with each other?
Yes. The score by theme can be compared across business units and against your own previous assessments. A cross-site roadmap consolidates assessments from several sites and groups redundant actions, prioritised by the AI.
How does this assessment link to our carbon trajectory?
Virgin material accounts for a significant share of upstream emissions in most industrial processes. Circularity actions therefore feed directly into the decarbonisation trajectory. The two frameworks can be cross-referenced in a single roadmap.
Where is the data hosted?
In France, with OVH, backed up with Scaleway. No transfer outside the European Union. The AI models used can be selected, including from European solutions.