In your opinion, are cars that include electronic components easier or harder to adapt to circular economy principle than a regular normal car?
Um, I can’t answer seriously because I’m not too deep into this business, but I guess you can reuse a lot of electronic materials. But also when I’m looking at the PCB, um, then it’s difficult to reuse a lot of electronic stuffs like capacitors, inductors or special microchips. So they’re going to trash garbage when they have been used or the car will be racked up. Racked up. You know what I mean? Yeah.
What can the automotive industry do to promote a circular economy?
Yeah. This what they could do to improve? Yeah. Um. Maybe they can. They can work more stronger together. That they have same platforms or almost same platforms. And then not every manufacturer uses this 1000 parts of a PCB maybe that they consider to use some same parts and then you have a better or that they have a look to use more of the same parts and that they altogether communicate which parts can be the best to recycle. Yeah, this is my best or my best idea I’ve got for that.
Uh, do you have concerns about privacy and personal data stored by car electronics? For example, when thinking about reuse of car electronics?
No, absolutely not. Because I’m not afraid of privacy data. You know, in Germany it’s always the biggest problem. But, you know, when you’re making pictures with your smartphone and you’re using WhatsApp, for example, they they take that much data. I do not take care when a car manufacturer uses my my privacy. Yes. Yeah, it’s like that.
Does recycling and reusing mean different things to you?
It’s a good question. Yes. A result. When I look at the car industry or automobile industry, reusing for me is to to buy a used one. And recycling is really when the car is not for use anymore and we take out all the materials etcetera. I think there’s a difference. But this is only when looking at the car industry.
And other branches,
Other branches, for example, the plant system in Germany with the bottles, plastic and glass, the glass is the glass bottles have a very big benefit. Plastic will be recycled and crushed and this will take a lot of more energy, especially cans for for lemonades, etcetera. This creates a lot of energy when recycling. But the glass glass bottle you can use 20 times before they will be crushed.
So on a scale of 1 to 5, one means not at all concerned and five means extremely concerned. How concerned are you about the issues of environmental waste and pollution?
Um, all over the world or everywhere here. All over the world. I think it’s getting better, but not as good as it could be. Um, five was really concerned. And 4.9. I’m just kidding. Okay, then give it a four. Give it a four.
Okay. What, if any, actions do you take in your life to promote sustainability?
My my favorite example is the search engine Ecosia. Maybe you heard about it. It’s a very good alternative to Google because they take money from the advertisements to to plant trees and forests. And this is really serious. So they are not kidding. And I try to promote Ecosia as good as I can instead of using Google or Yahoo! And this is my favorite and. I also. I told you, I’ve got a new car. I’m looking for a comfort car, but not looking for a very big engine. You know it For me, it’s really crazy. When they drive Mercedes or Audi with 400, 500 horsepowers. This is really crazy. Nobody needs that. My car has the smallest engine which was available. So this is this is something I really appreciate or I try to, to suggest to other other people.
How much responsibility does each individual have to make lifestyle and consumer choices that help protect the environment?
To be honest, I think for for sure it’s important. But when I look all over, for me it’s maybe 5 or 10% because the real big problem is industry and especially also the industry in South America and in China, Russia, America. This is from my point of view, the biggest problem we have. This decision will not be made by each individual for sure. But. Sorry to interrupt me, but for sure it will be decided in the industry and the big global players industries.
Last question. Do you see the circular economy as a local or national or international issue?
Each of them.
Easy to answer because everyone has has to work on it. Really? Everyone. But yeah, maybe I prefer prefer international because we are here in Germany looking at our heating systems, which is that small part of CO2 emissions all over the world. I’m honest with you and. That is so few. When looking at the Chinese CO2 emission, this is really crazy. Maybe you know the figures, but in Germany we save the energy CO2 emissions. China produces in at one 1000 times. Really? These figures are horrible. So yeah, it is an international thing, but also on each individual. But I think really the industry has to make the biggest part.
Okay. Thank you very much. You’re welcome.