It has been estimated that 125 million tennis balls wind up in America’s landfills every year. These balls take roughly 400 years to decompose, and Trinity players are joining a nationwide movement to reduce the waste and environmental harm the sport can cause. This semester the women’s team has launched the Rebounce program, where they collect used tennis balls for redistribution and recycle them.
The team has placed recycling bins on the Butch Newman Tennis Courts where team members, students, and community members can conveniently chuck their used balls at the end of their practice. A portion of the balls are then taken to local shops, including Rise Up, Two Hearts Yoga, and Urth Juice Bar, and are sold to customers, two for $1. All proceeds from the sales benefit TracysDogs, a dog rescue organization, and other homeless pet shelters in San Antonio.
The rest of the balls are sent to a facility in Vermont where they are ground up into “green gold” and used in the construction of new tennis courts and a wide variety of green products. The tennis team is collecting funds for the shipment of the balls. Approximately 2,000 tennis balls at Trinity have been repurposed or recycled so far.
Local shopowners are selling the balls and donating the proceeds to dog rescues and shelters in San Antonio.
Abigail DeNike ’20 is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience and a minor in creative writing.
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