The National Materials Datahub Can Improve Governance for Better Material Use by Industry: An Evidence Briefing from the Resource Recovery from Waste Programme.

Decision-making and investment for improved material use, as envisioned in a circular economy, is held back by a lack of adequate data infrastructure. Governance of material use involves diverse economic, social and environmental aspects and is highly fragmented across (devolved) government bodies. Acting upon government and industry ambitions to optimise material use requires change from across society. Industry needs government to correct market failures and create an enabling context. Government has to adopt a whole-system approach and continue to develop and implement a coherent set of strategies, plans, policies, regulations and legislation. To achieve this, a better infrastructure must be developed for data collection, storage, exchange, analysis, and use in decision-making. Data has to be brought together on stocks and flows of materials and products; throughout their lifecycles from extraction to manufacturing, consumption, and end-of-use management incl. reuse, repair, remanufacturing, recycling, controlled storage, and energy recovery; on volumes, technical qualities, location and timing; and economic, social and environmental costs and benefits at each lifecycle stage. The National Materials Data hub (NMDhub) could offer essential functionalities for government both during its development and commissioning. It is important to engage the community of stakeholders and have detailed conversations about the materials and functionalities that should be prioritised in the hub’s development. Building the NMDhub represents a sizeable investment and an initial assessment presented herein suggests that this would be far outstripped by significant benefits for economic growth, business opportunities, job creation, low-carbon targets, natural capital, resource productivity, and material supply security.