What do you do with your tennis balls after they lose their bounce and are no longer playable?  It is not unreasonable to assume that the vast majority of tennis players simply toss them away with the leftover meatloaf that has been in the refrigerator for the past month.  Did you know it is estimated to take approximately 450 years for tennis balls to decompose naturally?  Did you know that recycling centers do not current accept tennis balls?

So what is an environmentally conscious tennis player to do?  Each match a fresh new can of at least three balls is cracked open introducing fuzzy yellow balls into the wild.  In some instances these balls are used for another practice hitting session or two or perhaps added to ball hopper, but they eventually lose their bounce and become unplayable.  What happens then?

Rather than relegate them to ride in the big smelly truck to the nearest landfill, how about bringing them to us?  At Guts and Glory Tennis we are proud to serve as a tennis ball recycling center for any local tennis players.  We will gladly take your used and unwanted balls and extend their useful life cycle thus diverting them from the landfill.  We do not provide this service for any monetary gain, but rather as a public service to help those who want to recycle and reduce landfill waste.

“What do we do with the balls we collect?”  Well, we have several ways of putting them to good use.  First and foremost, the balls that still have decent felt are packaged and donated to a tennis ball recycling company called “reBounces.”  This company has a machine that uses a ball re-pressurization system, (called the Green Tennis Machine), to re-pressurize the balls.  The balls are then resold in bulk at a discounted price to tennis facilities, coaches, camps  and schools who use them in their coaching efforts.

We also receive calls fairly frequently from school systems and nursing homes who make use of used tennis balls.  In classrooms they are used on the feet of chairs and desks to reduce noise when chairs are moved on the flooring.  In nursing homes they are used on the legs of walkers to help them glide  more smoothly over the flooring.  When we have tennis balls on hand we provide them to these groups for no charge unless they are not local.  In those cases we do assess shipping costs.

Finally our favorite way to extend their useful life is to make them available to dog owners who want to use them to play fetch with their dogs.  We do need to advise that in some circles dog people are concerned about the dye used in tennis balls.  Based on our internet research, we believe the dyes used today to be harmless.  We do allow our dogs to play with tennis balls, but we still feel obligated to notify those seeking to use them for their dog to enjoy that there is a school of thought that advises against this.

So there you have it.  Next time you are about to throw away your tennis balls, stop!  Just drop them by our shoppe at 333 Main Street, Suite 200 in Suwanee, GA  (30024) and we will take it from there.  If you are not local and are interested in recycling tennis balls we suggest you visit http://www.rebounces.com