Make the most of what you have: something we’ve forgotten when it comes to goods and resources. The More than Recycling exhibition at the Technisches Museum encourages a different way of thinking.
- Six themed areas
- Insights into resource-kind choices
- Peek at intriguing research and practical initiatives, too
- Runs Jun 18, 2025 – Dec 30, 2026
- Book Technisches Museum tickets*
- See also:
The circular economy
(Two critical letters: RE; press photo © Technisches Museum Wien)
And so I stand with a self-satisfied grin, emptying the plastic-filled bin into the recycling container. Saving the world one crisp packet at a time. Ah, more fool me.
Recycling may be better than merely throwing stuff away, but it remains just one of many options to put the brakes on our riotous descent into environmental catastrophe through excessive resource use.
As the Technisches Museum’s More than Recycling exhibition demonstrates, we need to consider our options with greater care.
Many parts of the world have gone linear in the sense that we buy, use, and throw away. The exhibition explores various approaches that help turn things circular: recycling, but also repurposing, repairing, redesigning and similar to ultimately use fewer resources for longer.
(Bathing suit made from recycled straws; press photo © Technisches Museum Wien)
The displays cover themes like agriculture, textiles, plastics, repair, or circular construction design.
Each themed area might then offer insights into related issues, as well as innovative solutions from research or practice that take us in a better (i.e. circular) direction.
So, for example, the textiles section highlights the visible mending culture, where the repair becomes part of the value of the item. It showcases biological pigments from bacteria that might replace environmentally-challenging synthetic dyes. And introduces the idea of generating fibre from algae.
Not that it’s all as simple as we might like.
One indirect takeaway from going through the exhibition is how some issues are far more complex than you might think. That same textile section proved quite an eye-opener in this respect.
(Part of the textile area; press photo © Technisches Museum Wien)
For example, a t-shirt’s material, the combination of materials, and the sources of those materials all matter.
100% organic cotton? Lovely, but what about worker pay in production areas? What about the water needed for cotton production. And water consumption leaves different ecological footprints depending on the source region. And so on…
So the message I took away was, essentially, use less, use longer, and think a bit more about your purchases and what you do with them.
And (if I might get on my high horse for a moment), while individual responsibility is important, let’s not give companies and governments a free ride as a result.
More forward-looking policies could do way more for ensuring the planet’s survival than me patching the hole in my pullover.
Dates, tickets & tips
Learn about building a better future from June 18th, 2025 to December 30th, 2026. An entrance ticket from or for the Technisches Museum includes all the special exhibitions inside.
(Booking service provided by Tiqets.com*, who I am an affiliate of)
The rest of the museum can keep you entertained for hours, too. The new Material Worlds permanent area is remarkably informative and a nice complement to More than Recycling.
A couple of other addresses that deal with similar themes:
- The Water Pressure exhibition at the MAK (until September 7th, 2025) explores how we might use that particular resource more sustainably and fairly. It also adds complementary art and design displays: don’t miss the water droplet installation
- The Kunst Haus Wien specialises in art exhibitions that have a green theme to them
How to get there
See my main Technisches Museum overview page for travel tips. Once inside, the exhibition starts on your right as you enter the first main floor (Ebene 2) and continues up through the building.
Address: Mariahilfer Straße 212, 1140 Vienna