We’re pretty sporty. I mean, we have lots of sports equipment. From baseball gloves to bicycles, snowshoes to swimming goggles, our shed, basement, and closets are filled with gear. What I’m saying is if you want to do it, we got the stuff.
And, when we’re talking traditional team sports, you gotta have balls: volleyballs, soccer balls, footballs, basketballs, squash balls, tennis balls. But the thing with balls is, they usually need to bounce, and once a ball has lost its bounce, it’s all over. Isn’t it?
Put aside your ideas of reusing tennis balls as trailer hitch covers, laundry fluffers, and floor protectors, I just heard of a company that actually rejuvinates old balls and makes them bounce again.
It is appropriately called Rebounces, and theyofficially started in Jan 2008.
All you gotta do is let them know you have some not so bouncy balls, and they’ll come to the rescue. They’ll even send you a prepaid box to ship them balls in. Unfortunately, they only accept loads of 200-500, but if you got together with your local tennis club, you might be able to swing it.
I checked out their website and found it disappointingly secretive with regards to process, but I’m willing to give them their privacy if they’re willing to make my tennis game come back to life.
Plus, with an estimated 20,000 tons of tennis balls being manufactured each year, you can bet there is an equal amount heading for the landfill. Anything that cuts down on that waste is good in my books.
I guess what I’m wondering is, why only tennis balls?
The Clean Bin Project Blog 
yes, that’s weird, thoug….a ball is supposed ti ba a ball….but, it’s one giant step forwards!!
I’ve tagged you I’m afraid – only take part if you want to, but I’d love to read your answers 🙂
http://myzerowaste.com/2008/12/ive-been-tagged-again/
Hello from Rebounces –
Sorry for the lack of info about our process. We don’t want to give away the secret sauce yet. We’d love to partner with you and your tennis mates there in BC. Perhaps we could work with you on a green tournament? email me cannon(at)rebounces.com
Cheers
– Cannon
I’m a teacher, and I’ll tell you what my school does with tennis balls. (I’m not sure if they were new originally or used, though I’d like to think they were used). They cut a slice in them and stick a table, desk, or chair leg down in them so that they don’t scratch the floors. Since each child’s chair needs four tennis balls, and then four more for the desk… if you multiply that times the number of kids in this country, we’d probably keep millions of tennis balls from the landfills if all schools used this handy dandy little trick!
That’s a great reuse idea. I noticed quite a few teachers online also use that method. I guess next time we have extra balls, we can check with our local school.