Recycled plastic, aluminum, or wood

We make furniture in all three. Here is what actually gets chosen, and what the choice usually comes down to.

Wishbone Site Furnishings

·September 9, 2026·2 min read

1,138
units specified in aluminum since 2018

170units in hardened bamboo

218units in cedar or wood

Recycled plastic lumber is our default and by far the largest share of what we ship, because for most public sites it is the material that needs nothing. The interesting question is when a specifier chooses something else, and the orders answer it.

Featured

The same bench in three materials

6 items

Mountain Classic Bench 5ft

MCB-5

Mountain Classic Aluminum Bench 6ft

MCBAL-6

Skyline Bench 5ft

SLB-5

Skyline Aluminum Bench 6ft

SLBAL-6

Modena Wide Body Bench 6ft

MWB-6

Modena Aluminum Bench 6ft

MAL-6

Aluminum: exposure and budget

Aluminum gets chosen for two reasons that rarely overlap. The first is exposure. A shoreline, a rooftop, a site where salt air reaches. Bluewater Park on the Bruce Peninsula took aluminum Mountain Classic benches for that reason. The second is servicing: an all-aluminum waste receptacle is the lightest thing a crew can lift.

Hardened bamboo: the look

Bamboo is chosen when a site wants the warmth of timber with better weather performance than most wood. It is a design decision more often than a maintenance one. The volume is small and the projects tend to be the ones that get photographed.

Wood: when it is the brief

Cedar goes in when cedar is what the client asked for, usually for a heritage site or a building it has to match. We will make it. We will also say plainly that it needs a refinishing schedule the other two do not.

The honest comparison

If nobody will be maintaining it, recycled plastic. If it is exposed to salt, aluminum. If the look is the brief, bamboo. If the brief says wood, wood, with eyes open. Most public sites are the first case, which is why most of what we ship is the first material.

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