What can the automotive industry do to promote a circular economy.
To promote a circular economy? So I would say that, um, there needs to be more labeling, I think, and maybe some open information about what materials that they’re using in their products to again, make recycling and sorting and disassembling a lot easier. And I think also, for example, research projects. So we have a lot of research projects and then trying to get information about certain quality of recycled materials and so on to make sure that they meet standards. Sometimes that can be very hard to get information from. So it’s very important that these companies share that information to be able to promote research and development. Yeah.
Uh, do you have do you have do you have concerns about privacy and personal data stored in electronics in general?
Um, yes, I do now, I think so with, with all this privacy. And so, for example, I, I, I’m actually starting to become quite terrified of I, I feel like me personally, I’ve been getting some, um, like bots and so on trying to message me. So yeah, I am concerned about that. I think that’s something that, yeah, things need to stay anonymous. Definitely. Yeah. And also with, you know, self-driving capabilities, perhaps they can be tracing where you’re driving and so on, like when you’re in the car when you’re not, you know. Yeah, it is concerning. Yeah.
Does recycling and reusing mean different things to you?
Um, yes. So recycling I think is further down the strategies. Reusing is something that, you know, it can be used for certain products. It still needs to be, you know, of a high enough quality to be able to be reused. But I think we should be trying to promote the longer use life of things rather than always thinking, oh, falling back on recycling because recycling as well can still be energy intensive and still be chemically intensive too. Yeah.
On a scale of 1 to 5, one means not at all concerned and five extremely concerned. How concerned are you about issues to and environmental waste and pollution?
Um, I would say five. I’m extremely concerned. Yeah. Because I think that there’s just so much consumption. And when you look at recycling, it’s very hard. Even if you recycle products, for it to be competitive on the market, on a on an economic value. And then when things are recycled, I think there can be a lot of greenwashing out there. Sometimes the recycling is more is more intensive than the primary production. So I think that, yeah, there’s a lot of misinformation and we have a long way to go. There’s lots of people in the world, The world is growing, people are wanting more and more and more. So yeah, it’s concerning for me, Yeah.
What, if any, actions do you take in your life to promote sustainability?
So Well, I try and eat. So I’m a vegetarian, so I try and yeah, reduce the amount of animal products that I eat. Again, I said that I don’t have a car, so I try and cycle everywhere, try and reuse, try and like wear clothes for as long as possible. I’m also involved in a company that is, you know, looking at circular economy strategies, trying to look at recycling as well as other strategies as well, and trying to improve technologies or develop technologies for for resource efficiency. Yeah.
How much responsibility does each individual have to make lifestyle and consumer choices that help protect the environment? What do you think.
I think consumers do have a very strong responsibility, but I think that a lot of it will come through trying to make companies change, because I think that companies have a much like a much larger footprint. And I think, yeah, I think it’s very important for us to be informed about the decisions that we’re making and also the organizations that we’re supporting. I think it’s also very important from policy because things don’t change and behaviors don’t change. And I think people have the best intentions. But when it comes to reality, it takes a lot of time and thought and people are so rushed it’s very hard to do that.
Yeah. Last question. Do you see the circular economy as a local or national or international issue?
I think it’s definitely an international issue. If you look at supply chains now, you know, they’re all over the world if you think of recycling. So I can give Australia as an example again for plastic recycling. We’ve had a huge issue there and one of the main issues is that so we don’t do very much manufacturing. So even if we try to recycle our plastics, we may have to export it to another country to actually do the the, the production of the of the new products. So yeah, it’s definitely an international problem. We need to work together for it. Yeah.
Thank you very much, Kathleen.
Thank you. Thanks for your.
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