So I’m Jos 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 your real name, in a repository of text documents that will be used for the research. If we 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 give you later an information sheet with the contacts. Okay.
That I’m not in EU that I’m UK.
Yeah, it’s no problem. Yeah. So please tell me your first name and that you agree.
Robin, Yes.
Thank you. Robin So the first question, could you define a circular economy in your own words? What is that?
It’s a system whereby as many materials in an original product are returned and have second or tertiary or several more lives and through a combination of recycling, reuse, remanufacture repair and and.
do you participate in a circular economy yourself in any aspect of your life?
Not directly. Only tangentially as a as a journalist reporting on sustainable issues. Yeah.
How did you become interested in circular economy ideas and practices?
I started off working for a magazine that was reporting on waste management in Britain, and it’s a fundamental aspect of it in the same way that recycling is as so, so and I’m still working in recycling now. So it’s a it’s a key part. It’s a key part of what we do.
In your opinion, can a circular economy be implemented in individual sectors or individual industries.
On the basis that the circular economy is not necessarily 100% of all materials becoming 100% of something else or so? I think yes, I think you can have, because I think circular economy can be scaled in a number of ways. It could be quite a small loop, potentially just within one production sector. It could be a region, it could be a city, but it could be a country or a, you know, a union.
Do you think the circular economy already exists in the car industry?
No.
Why?
Because they are recovering 97% of cars maybe, but they’re not recovering those materials, that’s recycling. So they’re not recovering them I don’t think in anything like as an efficient way as they could be recovered through higher up in the hierarchy. Reuse.
Do you currently own a car?
Yeah.
Which kind?
It’s a it’s a Toyota and it’s 22 years old.