While most teenagers are focused on homework and weekend plans, twelve high school students from the Pacific Palisades community are confronting a global environmental issue hiding in plain sight: the estimated 500 million non-biodegradable tennis and pickleballs discarded into landfills each year.
They launched Another Bounce with an ambitious goal of setting a World Record for the most balls collected for recycling from racquet sports—a campaign that will culminate in an Earth Day collection event on April 19.
The group has partnered with Ridwell in Los Angeles, which shreds, washes, and pelletizes the balls, which are then shipped to their partner Merlin Plastics.
The recycled plastic is then used to create a variety of products: The pelletized post-consumer resin (PCR) ends up in various commercial and industrial products like nursery plant pots, carpeting, plastic packaging, and more.
They also supply balls to a group in Florida called Bounce Back Pickle which breaks down the plastic to create new pickle balls—avoiding the landfill waste that can take over 400 years to decompose.
Ultimately, their youthful mission is to vigorously advocate for a circular model for tennis and pickle balls—like computer manufactures have designed in partnership with electronics stores—meaning, ball companies should create their own take back programs to ensure products are responsibly recycled at the end of their life.
Simple ways you can help
The students have joined the California nonprofit Habits of Waste as the new ‘Junior Board’, and launched a public email campaign calling on major ball manufacturers (Penn, Wilson, Franklin, Dunlop, and Selkirk) to implement circular business models, including national take-back programs
“Youth leadership is one of the most powerful forces for change,” said the founder of Habits of Waste, Sheila Morovati, who landed in GNN’s headlines in 2018 for setting her own Guinness World Record for collecting over a million gently-used crayons to donate to 700 teachers.
Sheila’s son Leo, a varsity tennis player, is on the Board, along with Ford Casady, who’s currently ranked the #1 Junior Pickleball Player nationally (U18), and his brother Boone, who rounds out their #1 US Junior Doubles Team (18U).
After witnessing bins overflowing with discarded balls at courts across Southern California, the team of student athletes decided they would no longer sit on the sidelines.
“We play the sport, we see the waste, and we aren’t waiting for adults to fix it,” said the 12 members who first came together while helping rebuild their community following the devastating Palisades Fire.
Beyond collecting balls within a 30-mile radius of Pacific Palisades—and nationally through shipped donations—the students are speaking at City Council meetings in Beverly Hills, Burbank, Santa Monica, Malibu, Los Angeles, to advocate for ordinances requiring parks, schools, and private clubs to recycle tennis and pickleballs.
They now have a warehouse in Santa Monica where people can ship balls if they want to help out nationally. (The address is: Habits of Waste Donation, 3000 31st St., Suite C
Santa Monica, CA 90405)
“It’s all very exciting,” Sheila told GNN in an email.
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A Guinness Record in their future?
Based on her research, the Guinness Record they must beat for the most tennis balls recycled is 1000, but there doesn’t seem to be any record for pickle balls yet.
“I will say that the kids are determined to set a substantial record so that they hold it for some time to come. Ultimately, the point of a world record is to raise awareness for issues, like ball waste, that people overlook everyday.”
Follow the group on Instagram @anotherbounce
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AND SHARE THE RECYCLING IDEA By Posting This for Pickleball Players on Social Media…