The environmental issue of tennis balls

At Wavezero, we recently covered the environmental impact of tennis tournaments such as Roland Garros, Wimbledon, and the US Open, exploring how these sports events can reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and inspire fans to take climate action.

There’s one thing we haven’t discussed yet, and it is an environmental topic that equally concerns professional and amateur tennis players: tennis balls. In the United States alone, 124 million used tennis balls end up in landfills every year.

It is estimated that these tennis balls take over 400 years to decompose. To address this environmental challenge, one organisation stepped up to the court to bring circular economy principles to tennis and reduce the waste it generates.

Recycleballs’ answer to “New balls, please?”

Based in Vermont, RecycleBalls is a non-profit with a mission to reuse and recycle all tennis balls. Since their work started in 2016, they have prevented 14,522,905 tennis balls from ending up in landfills. Here’s how they do it.

At the core of their solution, they want tennis players and organisations to participate in the industry’s efforts to reduce its environmental impact. That’s why they created a network of over 5000 partners throughout the United States to promote the collection of tennis balls.

These partners can access cardboard ball bins that are placed directly on the tennis courts. Once the bins are filled with old balls, RecycleBalls’ partners ship them to their Vermont facility. There, the balls are ground up in a machine that separates the yellow felt from the rubber.

After two years of research and development, RecycleBalls developed a facility that can process 10,000 tennis balls per hour. This allows them to recover natural crumb rubber, a product which they named GREEN GOLD.

Making tennis balls fully circular

RecycleBalls is the first organisation in the United States to develop a solution that can collect and recycle tennis balls at scale. While some of the balls they collect are resold as dog balls, the real magic happens with GREEN GOLD.

As a material, GREEN GOLD can be used in a wide range of manufacturing processes, from making traffic safety equipment to turf for playgrounds and equestrian facilities. These recycled tennis balls even found a way to make it back on the court.

Through its partnership with Laykold, a global leader in sports surfaces, RecycleBalls provides recycled rubber from yesterday’s tennis balls to make the courts of tomorrow. In doing so, they demonstrate the power of the circular economy in sports.

RecycleBalls’ solution makes it convenient for players to dispose of tennis balls and reduces industry waste. It also offers tennis organisations a tax benefit when participating in their programme. That’s a win for the bottom line of sports organisations and sustainability in sports.