New balls please: How one company is giving discarded tennis balls a new lease of life

The unassuming tennis ball is not usually brought up in conversations about pollution and other environmental hazards facing the planet, but one organisation has been on a mission to raise awareness about the dangers posed by incorrect tennis ball disposal.

“There’s a lot of trash out there, and tennis balls don’t need to be part of it,” said Erin Cunningham, CEO of Recycle Balls, a non-profit based out of Vermont, who added that tennis balls, made of rubber, can take approximately 400 years to decompose,

Using the organisation’s patented Quickship bin placed at various locations in the United States and Canada, players are able to ensure that tennis balls discarded in the bins will eventually be recycled at a facility in Vermont, where the non-profit is located.

The recycling process makes it possible to remove most of the felt of the tennis ball, leaving the rubber to be chopped and turned into something the non-profit calls GREEN GOLD, which can be used to create tennis court surfaces, stucco wall replacements, and even mulch or ground cover.

According to Recycle Balls, since its 2016 founding, there have been 75,000 collection bins placed near courts and various locations in both the US and Canada, resulting in 12 million tennis balls that have been kept out of landfills.

Occasionally, Recycle Balls assists in reusing the balls without the recycling process.

“They can go on to the bottom of mobility aids for people who need walkers or other support in their mobility. They can be used on the bottom of chairs at schools, particularly for classrooms that need some silencing, to make everything a better learning environment,” said Cunningham.

“They can be used for dog toys, there's just a variety of uses that, you know,