So I’m Jos and I’m working on research in circular economy and automotive sector. I would like to know your point of view. If you accept, I am going to record our conversation, transcribe it and put the transcription with a pseudonym, not your real name, in a repository of text documents that will be used for the research. If you do this and you change your mind 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 if you agree, please tell me your first name and that you agree.
Joseph Holsten and I agree.
Thank you very much, Joseph. My name is the same. So yeah, the first question can you define circular economy in your own words? Um.
I guess I looked at the circular economy to be somewhat of a cradle to grave sort of viewpoint, and I’ll just leave it at that. I think it’s a cradle to grave is the best. Yeah. 15 word description of what I think circular economies would be.
Uh, do you participate in a circular economy yourself in any aspect of your life?
I certainly think in my kind of my life, my little corner of the world that we have, cradle to grave is really the forefront of what we focus on.
Um, how did you become interested in circular economy ideas and practices? If. If.
I think I’d have to say the EU has been a major driver of of cradle to grave and. Yeah. Was involved in the waste management business before I got into automotive parts and services. And that too, I think was somewhat of a EU led focus of recognition that one of these days this planet will have been stripped of all of the. Be stripped of the minerals and there won’t be any more or not any that can be obtained in an affordable cost plan.
In your opinion, can circular economy be implemented in individual sectors or individual industries?
Well, I think so. But it would seem that that would be, again, there more affordable ways to accomplish many of the goals that the you set forth. But I also think that’s kind of the important thing is they haven’t dictated the industry. You know this is this is how you’re going to get to the last gram of gold out of the 2001 Chevrolet. That would have really, I think, been cost prohibitive. And even I think when the waste industry first got started in this, thanks to the EU. And they were they were making like grocery stores would have to take back toothpaste tubes. Just as an example of kind of how ridiculous some of these goals and objective objectives could be if the current season with. Allowing people and industries kind of closest to the issue. Let them be the decider of how programs to manage the goals that are really achieved.
Do you think that the circular economy already exists in the car industry?
Oh, yes, I think it does. I think that was probably most evident today would be in the remanufacturing of in products, say an alternator, a rotating electrical part. Those can quite easily for a fraction of the cost of a designing, developing, creating a new water pump or alternator that can be done for, you know, like I say, a fraction of the cost. I think there’s considerable examples of cradle to grave
Do you currently own a car?
I do.
Which one?
I own an Audi. My wife and I own an Audi and we own a Mercedes.
Is it electric or hybrid or conventional?
Conventional.
When is the one the adjective that comes to mind when you think about car electronics? Electronics in the car?
Yeah, I think the certainly good examples. They’re they’re they. One. One way to look at it would be the. The cost of actually maybe rebuild an individual component, such as a radio or an instrument panel. So maybe that’s a situation where the the best solution may involve melting down, disassembling a part in order to get that one kilogram of gold or silver that exists and where certain things were soldered together, where the labor cost. And many of the European markets just aren’t going to allow the. Okay, Well, allow for this. This is a rebuilding concept, but it does allow for the disassembly of the individual components.