We found ambivalent attitudes, the respondents were both positive and negative regarding the external instruments towards circular economics they were affected by. The respondents expressed an overall positive attitude towards external instruments as means to counter unwanted behaviors that hinder a sustainable development. Generally, a negative attitude was expressed to how the external instruments have worked in real life, the instruments were not perceived as thought through enough. The factors that adversely affected the attitude were primarily the feeling of losing control and a lack of information. The instrument that the respondents expressed themselves most positive to was research and development contributions, which we interpret is due to the contributions being given to self-initiated projects and not perceived as intrusive. The respondents expressed a genuine desire to change parts of the business to strive for a sustainable development. We believe that although they are negative to how the directly acting instruments are designed and work in practice, they still have the will to develop the business in that direction.