Governance Studies

Your new BMW could make you feel like a fish out of water - as in the future parts will be made from recycled fishing nets.In a first for the automotive industry, from 2025 models of their NEUE KLASSE cars will feature trim parts made of plastic whose raw material contains around 30 percent recycled nets and ropes. This raw material is proactively sourced at ports all around the world to ensure that it doesn’t end up being discarded in the sea.In an exclusive recycling process, waste material from the maritime industry is used to produce trim parts suitable for the exterior and interior of future vehicles. The resulting components have an approximately 25 percent lower carbon footprint than their counterparts made from conventionally manufactured plastics.The BMW Group is working with different approaches to use plastic waste from the maritime industry as a raw material for vehicle components in order to conserve valuable resources and reduce CO2 emissions. This form of recycling makes it possible to reduce the need for petroleum-based primary plastics and at the same time counteract ocean pollution.Recycled nylon waste forms the basis for a synthetic yarn from which the floor mats in the BMW iX and the new BMW X1, for example, are made. This material, known as ECONYL, is made from discarded fishing nets well as worn floor coverings and residual waste from plastics production.In a new initiative developed in cooperation with the Danish company PLASTIX, the BMW Group is taking the recycling of maritime plastic waste a step further. After separation, fishing nets and ropes undergo an innovative process that produces plastic granules. While recycled maritime plastic has so far only been used in the automotive industry in the form of fibres for new vehicle components, this recycled material is now also suitable for the injection moulding process for the first time. The raw material for the components manufactured in this way can consist of around 30 percent mari

R&D for the public good: Ways to strengthen societal innovation in the United States

Darrell M. West

Thursday, September 29, 2022

graphic of Inclusive Opportunity Project leaders

Valuing rural minority communities: Inclusive growth, broadband, and leadership

Makada Henry-Nickie and Regina Seo

Wednesday, August 31, 2022

Sow barns are pictured at a breeding farm of Best Genetics Group (BGG), a Chinese pig breeding company in Chifeng, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China February 26, 2022. Picture taken February 26, 2022. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang

Beneficial ownership transparency in Mongolia: Tackling complex implementation issues

Michael Barron, Tim Law, Batsugar Tsedendamba, and Ariuntsetseg Jigmeddorj

Thursday, August 18, 2022

Donna Hawkins, a clerk for the registration department of the Board of Elections hands out future voter stickers to people after theyve registered to vote outside the Board of Elections Manhattan borough office, in New York, NY, October 8, 2020. (Anthony Behar/Sipa USA)No Use UK. No Use Germany.

Using individual income tax data in automatic voter registration systems: A state-by-state analysis

Vanessa Williamson

Tuesday, August 16, 2022

An aerial view shows machinery working in an open-pit coal mine in Ejin Horo Banner, Ordos, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China, October 19, 2021. Picture taken with a drone. China Daily via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. CHINA OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN CHINA

China’s role in supplying critical minerals for the global energy transition: What could the future hold?

Rodrigo Castillo and Caitlin Purdy

Monday, August 1, 2022

Black doctor and older patient video chatting

The roadmap to telehealth efficacy: Care, health, and digital equities

Nicol Turner Lee, Niam Yaraghi, and Samantha Lai

Monday, July 25, 2022

Cargo operations in the trading port in front of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Six ways to improve global supply chains

Darrell M. West

Tuesday, July 12, 2022

FILE PHOTO: The Codelco El Teniente copper mine, the world's largest underground copper mine is shown near Rancagua, Chile August 13, 2020. Picture taken through a window. REUTERS/Fabian Cambero/File Photo

The future of mining in Latin America: Critical minerals and the global energy transition

Caitlin Purdy and Rodrigo Castillo

Thursday, July 7, 2022

Piles of logs at pictured at Sqomish Forestry LP in Squamish, British Columbia, Canada April 25, 2017. REUTERS/Ben Nelms

The Audacity Deficit in Natural Resource Governance

Daniel Kaufmann and Mario Picon

Friday, June 17, 2022

The Berlaymont, headquarters of the European Commission.Le Berlaymont, siege de la Commission europeenne.NO USE FRANCE

The EU AI Act will have global impact, but a limited Brussels Effect

Wednesday, June 8, 2022