Naperville Teens Find Success Recycling Old Tennis Balls

SEATTLE (Waste Advantage): Two Naperville Central High School girls who raised money to install a tennis ball collection bin in Knock Park have recycled 1,000 balls since last fall and are ready to ship another 600, they say.

Katherine Ho, a 17-year-old junior, and Harriet Hunt, a 18-year-old senior, said they came up with the idea after seeing tennis balls that players failed to retrieve.

"Nowadays, they seem to be just everywhere," Ho said. "A lot of casual tennis players have a duffle bag just filled with old balls, so we wanted to do something about that."

"You see old tennis balls just lying in the grass near the courts and sometimes a larger dog can chew on them and choke," Hunt said. "So that’s a really big concern."

Ho researched the problem and found a Wisconsin company that manufactures recycling bins specifically made for old tennis balls.

She also located a Vermont nonprofit that repurposes discarded balls and even provides free shipping labels so people can send them.

"They were surprised that we were the ones who reached out to them because we wanted to start recycling, rather than the other way around," Hunt said.

Ho and Hunt were able to raise funds for the $189 cost of the first recycling bin with donations from neighbors like Steve and Sharon Olson, and local businesses, including John Greene Realtor, Naperville Running Company, Melissa Noto Design Studio and the New Balance Naperville shoe store.

"We’re really hoping to place more bins at other tennis courts in the area, and we hope other sponsors will get in touch with us to help out the cause," Hunt said.
The recycled balls were collected from their bin as well as from schools and tennis clubs.

"Until recently, the idea of recycling tennis balls has not been practical because of the shipping costs," Recycle Balls founder Derrick Senior said. "Every year in the U.S., we use 125 million tennis balls, or 20 million tons by weight, the most of any country in the world.

"One ball at a time, we’re looking to change tennis and change habits by making it easier for people to recycle."

Senior said another compelling reason to recycle tennis balls is the option of claiming a tax deduction, which has a going rate of 35-cents per used ball.

"We couldn’t be prouder of Katherine and Harriet," Senior said. "They represent a model of youth helping change the sport, and hopefully, they’ll be a model for the rest of the country to do something beneficial like this."

Courtesy: https://wasteadvantage.com