Tennis Balls Are Bad for The Environment

Tennis balls are hard to recycle because they take more than 400 years to decompose.

Big tennis events can go through almost 100,000 balls per tournament.

Nearly 330 million balls are manufactured each year, and eventually end up in landfills.

Grand Slams like Wimbledon will go through over 55 thousand balls a year.

Tennis balls are made to be very “indestructible”, which means they're very resistant to mechanical processing.

The felt is attached to the rubber because it helps increase friction and better grip.

This is the main causes of why they are so hard to decompose.

When tennis balls go into landfills, they release methane for about 400 years. Methane’s warming potential is around 28 times higher than carbon dioxide.

The outside layer of the tennis ball is made of polyethylene terephthalate fibers (PET for short). This makes microplastic that can break off the tennis ball every time it is hit.

These microfibers fly through the air and end up in oceans and waterways. This impacts wildlife and humans.