So my name is Jos and I’m working on research in circular economy and automotive sector. And I’m 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 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 at first if you agree, tell that you agree and your name please.
Yes I agree, my name is Sebastian GEP.
Thank you Sebastian. First question. Can you tell me a bit about your educational and professional background and interest?
Well, I have a diploma in Micro technology and an MBA, and I’m working on printed electronics for about 15 years now.
What is your area of expertise?
Building complete devices.
The theme of this conference is The Future of Electronics Reshaped. What does the idea of reshaping electronics for the future mean to you?
Changing production methods, using different equipment to achieve similar goals, and bringing electronics to new form factors?
What do you think is the relationship between electronics and sustainability?
Well, electronics by now need to be recyclable or detachable in the future so you can take stuff out of the finished product, and we design our devices or start to design devices to be able to do this after their end of life.
Can you define circular economy in your own words? What is it?
Well, that you start buying stuff, producing it, and at the end return the the goods back to its nature.
Do you participate in the circular economy yourself in any aspect of your life?
Only if the customer asks us to do it.
And in your personal life?
Yes, of course, we recycle our garbage at home.
Uh, do you think electronics can play a role in making the car industry more sustainable?
Mm. Difficult question. Because they’re putting more and more electronics in the cars and then the cars don’t last that long. I think they just should just build less cars and more buses or trains. I think that would be more sustainable.
Do you think electronics can play a role in making the car industry more circular?
No, no, because the electronics at the moment used a lot more resources than metal, for example, or mechanics, and then it’s just not lasting that long. So if you buy a car today, it will last for 5 to 10 years and then it is just dead. But if you bought a car 70 years ago, it still runs today. And that’s not sustainable today. So I would rather buy an old car today.