Cork tennis club to recycle used tennis balls for arts and crafts students

BISHOPSTOWN Lawn Tennis Club has launched a plan to reuse and recycle as many tennis balls as it can this year.

Each year in Ireland thousands of tennis balls are discarded and thrown away but the club is now looking at ways of how they can reuse and recycle them.

Tennis balls are rubber balls covered in felt and the rubber ball is then injected with pressurised air to ensure it will bounce. Over time, the pressurised air leaks out of tennis balls, making them unsuitable for play.

The club will be collecting tennis balls for local schools so children can reuse the balls for arts and crafts. The club has also just installed a ‘dog bin’ where they are placing old tennis balls and can help themselves to an old ball and bring it home for their dog to play with. They will also be using social media to show what other uses can have for old tennis balls such as using them for a camera mount or a floor cleaner.

BLTC will also be running a competition among its junior asking them to come up with creative ideas on how to reuse old tennis balls.

BLTC head coach Conor Twomey said: “Each year we disregard so many tennis balls that are no longer suitable for playing tennis with and we decided we needed to do something with them. 

We are trying to get the whole club involved in finding ways we can reuse the balls rather than simply throw them in the bin.

"Some schools in the area have already said they would love to receive some old tennis balls from us and we will be collecting them now to deliver to them.”

Figures show that globally nearly 300m tennis balls are made each year but there are very few initiatives that encourage people to recycle old tennis balls.

Other uses for old tennis balls include: Putting them in the dryer with wet clothes and to decrease the drying time; put them in the toilet tank, to decrease the amount of water used for every flush; cut a slit in an old ball and use it to store coins; make a massage roller from them.