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What remains if we only manufacture products from recycled materials? And what do we lose along the way?

Material Shifts presents redesigns of familiar everyday objects that are made from materials already in circulation.

• What stays?
• What changes?
• What disappears?

Scientific data on material flows and losses help explain what happens to resources in today's recycling processes. Between evidence and imagination, the redesigns open up new perspectives on the possibilities and limits of a circular economy.

Recycling is essential, but not without limits.

It changes how things look and how they function.

Material Shifts invites us to understand our use of resources as part of a circular culture and to see the future as something we can actively shape.

A project by IDRV – Institute of Design Research Vienna, which is developing a framework for circular product design with the Circular Design Rules. The tool is available free of charge at cdr.tools.

Material Shifts is an artistic research project by IDRV. It builds on published data about recycling rates as well as on in-house material analyses. The referenced sources were selected for their scientific grounding and for their accessibility to students.

For selected everyday products, the material composition was determined as precisely as possible—based on data sheets and, where necessary, through disassembly. This formed the basis for estimating what share of the materials is recycled in Austria and what share is lost. These balances were translated into redesigns and data visualisations that illustrate the aesthetic and functional consequences of contemporary recycling processes.

The results are simplified approximations offered without guarantee. Their aim is to make complex material flows tangible and accessible.