In your opinion are cars that include electronics, electronic components easier or harder to adapt to circular economy principles than regular old school car?
So I would say it’s they should be better, but they are not, I believe, because they are so custom and they are so much of. Yeah, we do see some like for example, luxury cars that have a parts from the other manufacturer or something. But generally, like I don’t, there are so many components, so many parts that I’m not sure that it goes with the circular economy in a sense. But I would say like older cars would be much more suitable for that because they’re more I feel they’re more simple, they’re more easy to like disassemble and maybe reuse different parts and different repurpose different parts. But I might be wrong, I might be wrong, but it’s my like, feel.
What can the automotive industry do to promote circular economy, in your opinion?
I would say more standardization, more also, the one thing is less of the subscription models because we build something, we don’t use it. And then like, okay, if you upgrade it for this part part time so that we actually build the stuff that is always used, security, safety that is like there and that’s implemented and that can be later repurposed. That’s more where it goes and also these less often new model updates. So yes, of course models have to be updated, but not as often that like someone is waiting for the car and they already new one out.
Uh, do you have concerns about privacy and personal data stored by car electronics you are sharing, for example, GPS or things like that?
Yes. And not just GPS, but more security systems, especially by Tesla and other models where they have surveillance on. And it’s not only about me, but also people around me that because I live in a city and that makes then other people there visible, all of this data is basically, for me as a consumer, not traceable later, basically. And opting out means I make this smart car, dumb car and there is no like garage where I can say, okay, I want just enough to give it just this much of data without actually having huge consequences on site. And they are like the Tesla is not the only one. There are many other manufacturers who do the same. If you if there’s only yes, we do smart things, we offer you smart experience, but you have to give us all the information about you, all the data, subscription models, all these cards and other data, location data and so on. And yeah, that’s, that’s a bit worrying.
And in electronics in general.
So in general there are a lot of companies, but there are new laws, there are new regulations that kind of like more put the consumer in the first place there and that. That’s kind of is giving you optimistically. Although for the same side, there are companies that says, okay no you can’t then use I do have smart home device which is now dumb device because I didn’t want it to share some information. So it’s kind of aggressive on the perspective, but it’s not always there. It’s not everywhere. So it goes, I would say, by the industry or the area of the electronics we are talking about that gives this kind of option. But automotive industry is generally, from my point of view or like what I saw, aggressive there.
Other general concerns about privacy in thinking about circular economy practices.
So if we are talking about circular economy, that should be really we should like the privacy should be really one on top points because we are talking about then repurposing or like having this reused and recycled and there’s data that is also could be repurposed and like used for something else. But then how do how does it manage? Do I get notified my data is like being used or being repurposed and so on. Majority of time not that’s the case, I believe. And yeah, so it should be much more taken care than it currently is. Yeah.
Uh, does recycling and reusing mean different things to you?
Yeah. Um, actually, I’m more in a preference of reusing and then recycling because recycling already gives some emissions of like, okay, we have to do the thing, we have to, um, basically go in, in the details of the components and everything. So where the actually reusing or sharing or the other options where actually the, the item stays intact or with a really a little bit of changes is for me much more desirable. The desirable option. Yeah. Yeah.
On a scale of 1 to 5, one means not at all concerned and five means extremely concerned. How concerned are you about issues of environmental waste and pollution?
So I would say around three and four where I have to say that like over the last few years, it raised in comparison to before and actually influenced my shopping experience and what I’m looking for. But I can’t say that I’m really, um, that I had so many of the situation where I was like, really at the five level. They are really, really concerned. Not yet there, but they are occasions, especially specifically areas where I would say one problem comes with the marketing where marketing is kind of like this greenwashing and all this hype term dramology that actually gets people. But then like people don’t look in the background of it. And that’s what I like to look before I do some decision. It doesn’t need to be buying, but also choosing the vehicle option or something, or choosing the transportation option. So I do am concerned, but I’m not at the stage where I would like to be. That’s all I would say more important from my point of view than actually in comparison to the other people. So I do see that I need, for example, more resources on actually being updated on on these decision how to do the decisions correctly and to really not fall in these terminology or slangs that are like in there that actually kind of hide the real thing that’s happening behind.
What, if any, actions do you take in your life to promote sustainability?
So for me, the number one thing is not buy something if I don’t really need it. And if I’m buying something, not buy something just because it’s cheap or something, but actually to buy and maybe give a bit more money to it, just to have a really good quality to it. Because the one thing is I don’t want to replace things and I also don’t like to throw things away, but I also don’t keep them. I mean, I try to give away and to kind of like or sometimes to sell the item, but like a majority of time, I think double think about every purchase, especially when it comes to the items that are not consumables or like food or something like that. But I must say that I also look into like packaging and such when it comes also to the food, which I’m kind of like proud of myself sometimes. But yeah, I do the majority like it’s influence the purchases in the sense of like that. I don’t have to buy much more of these same items or or similar items again in the future or that also I can repair it a bit. That’s also something that influence my purchasing choices, that it’s kind of either reusable in that sense or that I can retrofitted with something else or modular items are also something that I like to to buy in the sense that I can extend it. If I see that I need to extend it and not just jump on whole system or something like that. Yeah.
How much responsibility does each individual have to make lifestyle and consumer choices that help protect the environment?
So I do believe that individuals have to raise their ways of thinking and like to go really deeper into thinking when they want to make a choice. But I believe the core of the change is actually the manufacturers, because I can’t change the manufacturing, how they do the packaging. If there’s the item that has a really good quality and I’d like to use it, I can write them. I can say like boycotting in this world is like now really trendy, but are we really boycotting or we are just kind of like making ourselves a fool saying, okay, we we don’t buy this, but then, like, we buy something different and this same company owns that other thing, you know? So I don’t think the consumer has at the moment, right, to really do the change of visible change, especially as an individual. So I strongly believe that it’s on manufacturer and also in the sense on on the government to kind of enforce these changes to protect the customers. And then when the customer have the options, then we can talk about, oh, this is now the choice of the customer. Like there are some companies that do sell, for example, brand name item and then then low brand known, no known name item and then give you the options. It’s same price you choose what is better for you. And then we see the customer can has that option to change. But if we are talking about like low earning areas, they obviously will choose what is cheaper regardless if it’s like good for the environment or not. And also they are not bad person. It’s just that’s what they they can do. So in that sense it first goes to the manufacturers government and then in the end, I believe on the consumer side. Yeah.
Do you see the circular economy as local or national or international issue?
I see it as international issue, especially nowadays where we are kind of like in the political situation where we have this, we are going away from internalization like or like this global economy and it makes them rather than think. So I believe that we produce much more than we actually need. And then we have different kind of recycling, different kind of repurposing and different kind of if you look different areas in the world, they have different trends in the packaging, for example, and then other topics too. So I think it starts local, but it’s really global issue.