- Tennis and padel balls normally end up in landfill
- Old balls can take over 400 years to completely decompose
- The oil-based acrylic fibres in the balls cannot be recycled
Next time you play tennis in your local club, take a close look at the ball you’re using as it may have been held by Novak Djokovic or Rafael Nadal. Well, some of it least.
Dutch tennis and padel balls producer Renewaballs has unveiled an ambitious plan to collect and recycle old tennis and padel balls as feedstock for new ones.
The company will partner with British business waste management specialist Hubba to deploy deploy bins throughout the UK’s tennis and padel clubs, schools and leisure centres to collect waste balls.
The balls will then be collected and shipped to Renewaball’s recycling centres, where the rubber will separated from the felt exterior and subsequently broken down before being remade into new balls.
The new balls will be made out of 100 percent sheep wool instead of polyester and/or nylon, which Renewaballs suggests will reduce CO2 emissions by 29 percent.
Some 97 percent of tennis and padel balls normally end up in landfill as they contain oil-based acrylic fibres which cannot be recycled
Approximately 300 million balls are used worldwide each year, according to research
At present, the process takes place in the Netherlands, but there are plants to introduce recycling plants in Britain to reduce carbon footprints even further.
The plan is aimed at addressing tennis’ ongoing sustainability issues, which is largely down to discarded balls.
Some 97 percent of tennis and padel balls normally end up in landfill as they contain oil-based acrylic fibres which cannot be recycled. Those same fibres spread micro-plastics through the air each time a ball is hit.
Once in the landfill, balls can take approximately 400 years to completely decompose and never completely decay.
Disposing of used balls represents a huge sustainability issue for both sports, given the vertiginously high volumes of materials used.
According to data collected by Renewaball, the US Open single-handedly uses up 95,000 balls across its two weeks. The number falls to 65,000 at the Roland Garros and to 54,000 at Wimbledon.
To put those figures into a broader context, some 18million kilograms of materials are used every year to produce 300 million tennis balls which are used worldwide annually.
A typical 100-litre bin will hold 300 tennis balls and there are 16,000 tennis clubs in the UK alone.
The US Open uses a staggering 95,000 balls across its two weeks in August and September
While the number of balls used falls to around 54,000 over the duration of Wimbledon
Clive Maple, Director at Hubba, said: ‘For years, tennis and padel sports equipment has posed a sustainability problem, particularly as oil-based acrylic fibres cannot be recycled.
‘We’re excited to work with Renewaball’s pioneering technology, and look forward to rolling it out across nationwide tennis and padel clubs and competitions in the years to come.’
Hélène Hoogeboom, CEO and co-founder at Renewaball, added: ‘We are delighted to join up with hubba to deliver a circular solutions throughout the UK for tennis and padel balls.
‘With their extensive knowledge of the circular economy and local connections, they will be instrumental in our collective mission to reduce the carbon footprint of sport.”
