The Problem
Tennis is often referred to as one of the most environmentally damaging sports due to one factor: Tennis balls. It is calculated that 80% of the 125 million tennis balls sold in the US end up in landfills meaning 100 million more balls are being added to landfills every year. In addition to this, the 100 million balls added to landfills every year are made of environmentally harmful plastics such as nylon that can take up to 400 years to decompose. Nylon is especially harmful as it is a cause for many of the problems with our climate today, and the biggest impact it has is a byproduct of the production of this harmful plastic. Nitrous oxide, a gas 310 times more potent than carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that makes up for about 7% of all emissions made by human activity. Not only does the production of nylon release deadly greenhouse gases, but it is also one of the most energy-consuming processes to produce, taking nearly 22 gallons of water for just one pound of plastic. In order to slow down this incredibly harmful process, and keep this plastic out of our environments, we need to recycle, starting with one of the biggest factors, tennis balls. Clearly, the potential environmental impacts that already loom upon us say we need to take action.
Our goal
As of now, there isn’t a way for the town of Lexington’s tennis players to dispose of old tennis balls. Green tennis is committed to changing this reality by helping people to recycle tennis balls. Green Tennis has developed a plan with efficiency and ease to safely and conveniently dispose of old tennis balls so that a player will never think twice about recycling their old tennis balls. Our goal is to take 1 tennis ball out of the landfill at a time, saving our planet from 400 years of plastic waste and the production of additional plastics
Our Solution
Our plan is developed to be easiest for the players to recycle their tennis balls with lots of flexibility, here’s how it works: If someone wants to recycle their old tennis balls, they can do it in a number of ways. The first way is they could leave it outside in a box and we would be happy to pick it up, otherwise, they could drop it off at our address in a designated ball recycling bin. If you are interested please contact us at greenertennis@gmail.com. We would come and collect the balls or give you an address where you could drop the balls.
Recycling Process
Our method is to collect bulk amounts of balls, then pack them into boxes to be shipped to Wilson and recycled. These balls can then be repurposed into almost anything! Many of them become part of tennis courts, balls, and many other items. Our goal is to keep the balls and the harmful plastics out of our environment.