The material I chose for my final rendering was brushed titanium. It has a brushed finish, preventing excessive light reflection (unlike chrome). Being made of metal it can be easy modeled, manufactured and recycled with minimum waste of materials.
These are some public benches around Auckland city. Some issues I noticed were wood rotting and holding moisture, and seat that were wet from the rain. The forth one down is actually not a bench, its used for leaning on instead of sitting on. I will add this idea to my design.