Okay, so I’m Joss and I’m working on research in circular economy and automotive sector, and I would like to know your point of view. If you accept, I’m going to record our conversation, transcribe it and put the transcription with a pseudonym, not with your real name and a repository of text documents that will be used for the research. If we do this and you change your mind later and no longer want to participate, get in touch with us and we will immediately remove your interview from the repository. I’m leaving you an information sheet with contact information so when you are agreed and please your first name and that you agree.
My first name is Daniela and I agree.
Thank you, Daniela. So the first question, can you define the circular economy in your own words?
Yes. So circular economy. I think it has different facets, but the main idea is that every waste, what you produce should go back to like in the biological or in the technical loop so that we actually don’t have waste anymore. So everything is used in the biological or in the technical way, a second, third and fourth time.
Do you participate in the circular economy yourself in any aspect of your life?
Yeah. So at work I work in it. I also studied, had some courses in my study and I think in my personal life I would say it general to be sustainable. So reduce, uh, don’t consume as much etcetera. Of course. Also try to lift the circular economy life with recycling, etcetera. But I would have it on like the stage of sustainable, not especially circular economy.
How did you become interested in circular economy ideas and practices?
Yeah, I guess when you read the news, when you go outside, I had a special moment where I was in a natural, uh, in a in Mexico and like really nice nature, but I couldn’t enjoy it because I saw all the plastic bottles in the water. So I yeah, I was thinking about, okay, I have, I have to change something and I have to work with or I have to do something. I also have like an engineering background, so I have the ability to work in the industry in this field and that’s why I came in touch with the topic. Yeah.
Uh, in your opinion, can a circular economy be implemented in individual sectors or industries?
Yeah, I think so. I hope so. Um, I think the, the first way is the recycling topic. I guess everybody at home can do something for that. But of course also the industry so that they recycle. But of course also the recycling industry has to be built up.yeah
Yeah. Uh, do you think the circular economy already exists in the car industry?
Um, yes, I think they work with highly pressure on it. Um, of course not in every way and not in, like 100%, but step by step, I think. Especially the recycling aspect. Not from a service upgraded ability point of view that much yet. But I think the recycling topic as you also see it here at the festival. Yeah.
Uh, do you currently own a car or did you own a car?
No.
Are you sharing cars?
Um, yeah. So I had a Miles (sharing company) coming here. Sometimes. Yeah.
Okay. When is the one adjective that comes to mind when you think about electronics in the car?
That’s, of course, a difficult topic when it comes on sustainability or circular economy because of course there are raw materials in it, critical materials in it, and they have to get out of the car. Yeah.
Uh, in your opinion, are cars that include electronic components easier or harder to adapt to circular economy than a regular car?
I think it’s. It’s harder in the case that you have to get all the different materials out of the car. So of course, if when you have more electric devices in it, you have to get or separate the stuff. And that’s a difficult question when you have PCBs. The cable harness, everything is like stick together and that has to be separated. And that’s a tricky question. Yeah.