Great question, and I’m glad you’re thinking sustainably. The short answer is: yes, absolutely—the materials used in our benches are designed to be recyclable at the end of their life, and we’ve taken great care to ensure minimal environmental impact.
Let me break it down for you. We primarily use three types of materials across our bench collections, and each one has a strong recyclability profile:
1. Recycled High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE): This is our go-to material for many park and commercial benches. It’s made from post-consumer plastics like milk jugs and detergent bottles. When a bench reaches the end of its life, the HDPE can be fully recycled again into new plastic products. It doesn’t degrade in quality through recycling, so it’s truly a circular material.
2. Aluminum: For our metal benches, we use powder-coated aluminum. Aluminum is one of the most recyclable materials on the planet—it can be melted down and reused indefinitely without losing its strength. In fact, recycling aluminum uses 95% less energy than producing it from raw materials. So your bench could one day become a bicycle frame or another bench.
3. FSC-Certified Hardwood: If you prefer a natural look, our wood benches are made from sustainably harvested, FSC-certified teak or ipe. While wood isn’t “recycled” in the same way as metal or plastic, it is biodegradable and can be repurposed. At the end of life, the wood can be chipped for mulch, used in biomass energy, or simply left to decompose naturally.
What about the hardware and fasteners? We use stainless steel, which is also fully recyclable. So overall, you’re looking at a bench that fits neatly into a circular economy model.
One thing to note: if a bench is severely damaged or worn out, we encourage customers to return it to us or send it to a local recycling facility that accepts mixed materials. We’re working on a take-back program to make this even easier.
So yes—your bench won’t end up in a landfill. It will live on in another form.