A PASSION FOR SAVING OUR PLANET
As a lifelong tennis player, I realized in 2016 that our sport was incredibly wasteful and was unable to find a place to recycle my used tennis balls. In tennis, you open a can of balls, play with them for an hour and a half, and then you toss them out. I did a little research and was stunned by what I discovered. I realized that there's got to be something we could do about it," he said. In 2016, along with my son Ryan, we founded RecycleBalls, a nonprofit that makes it easy for tennis clubs and fitness centers around the country to recycle their used balls.
With the passion of players nationwide, we built a nationwide network of partner facilities in nearly every state. In just a few years, the program has been so successful that Chicago-based Wilson Sporting Goods, one of the world's largest manufacturers of tennis equipment, signed on as the program's lead sponsor.
We're not your typical non-profit. We're applying best practices from manufacturing and distribution to achieve our goals quickly and efficiently. The shared nature of our mission has inspired people of every age to get involved. A growing network of over 4000 US partners and individuals (August 2021) are spearheading a first of its kind positive change for tennis.
Tennis balls recycled
RECYCLING TENNIS BALLS
Derrick Senior
Derrick is a thought-leader who has brought his success from 30 years in manufacturing, distribution, and management to the RecycleBalls mission. He believes that for green innovations to be successful, they must have two central components: first, they must be practical, and second, they must create models for positive change. RecycleBalls was established on these two principles and seeks to work at every level of the sport to bring about the mission of recycling all tennis balls in the country.
Jeremy Rayburn
Jeremy is a Client Success Manager dedicated to working with tennis players and facilities across the country and helping to make tennis a green sport. Prior to joining Recycleballs, Jeremy worked in New York as community support specialist in the tech industry and as a planning analyst for a record label. He loves living in Burlington and being part of the Vermont community. In his free time, Jeremy performs standup and sketch comedy.
David Harcourt
SYSTEMS SPECIALIST
David has been with RecycleBalls from the start and has been instrumental in developing the many integrated systems that define the QUICKSHIP experience. Dave created the unique inventory tracking processes as well as most of the functionality in an extensive customer retention management system. Besides delivering superb systems/infrastructure solutions, Dave is also involved in local theater and serves on the board of the Vermont Green Building Network.
Ryan Senior
Ryan has been managing the Vermont operations of RecycleBalls for the last two years with great success. As part of the early business development effort, Ryan spoke to many players, facilities managers and pros about the need to recycle. The enthusiastic response to the idea fueled early efforts within the organization to quickly develop a practical solution. Those efforts led directly to the creation of the patent-pending QUICKSHIP recycle bin, which has met with great success.
Jason Mandel
Jason Mandel is a rising tennis player student at Beverly Hills High School in California. Jason has established partners with several facilities and provided them with our QUICKSHIP program. His dedication and tenacity have already resulted in the recycling of 10,000's of tennis balls! He's determined to exceed expectations and attend a top-ranked university in 2021 and major in entrepreneurship. We could not be prouder to have Jason as a model for other aspiring Ambassadors.
Jonathan Nelson
Jonathan is a Client Success Manager dedicated to working with tennis players and facilities across the country and helping to make tennis a green sport. Prior to joining Recycleballs, Jonathan worked as a Retail Manager and as a Martial Arts / Ski / Kayaking Instructor. He loves living in the Burlington area and being part of the Vermont community. In his free time, Jonathan enjoys woodworking, playing music and enjoying the great outdoors.
Questions and answers about our Non-Proffit
What is RecycleBalls?
RecycleBalls is a national player driven initiative to reuse and recycle all tennis balls.
We are the first organization in U.S. tennis history with a large scale collection solution for all played tennis balls in this country.
Our patented QUICKSHIP bin/program is the simplest way for individuals and facilities around the nation to recycle tennis balls. Not only does the program provide pre-paid shipping but in addition provides a tax donation for every ball donated.
We created RecycleBalls Green Gold in 2017. This unique crumb rubber product, made from tennis balls, can be easily incorporated into many existing processes.
This rubber product was the result of developing a process that removes 99% of the felt from tennis balls in a cost-effective manner.
The first products made with RecycleBall's Green Gold were created in 2018 with new strategic partners.
In February 2019, Recycleballs was one of four nonprofits nominated as an environmental finalist in the prestigious 2019 Halo awards.
Why is Tennis so wasteful?
Tennis players recognize a significant environmental problem and agree that U.S. tennis players need to change their habits and recycle their tennis balls. Typically, tennis players open a new can of tennis balls every time they play because of the quick decline in pressure and the lack of consistency in previously played balls. Nationwide, approximately 125 million used tennis balls wind up in America's landfills every year. That is 20,000 metric tons of methane-producing rubber waste that takes 400 years to decompose!
Why have tennis balls not been recycled in the USA until now?
Simply put – there is no money in it.
Profitability from recycled tennis ball rubber is almost non-existent given that it must compete with low-cost ubiquitous tire rubber. There has been no formalized tennis ball collection program/solution prior to RecyleBalls that was sustainable and nationally scalable. There is also the prohibitive factor of costly necessary infrastructure and costs of de-felting and the management needed to facilitate these efforts. For these reasons, tennis ball recycling has not been able to successfully materialize, despite the depth of the problem and the considerable passion to see this happen.
How has this been funded?
This non-profit was initiated by the passion and generosity of a few who volunteered their time, talent, and treasure. We started small and grew quickly by offering compelling easy to use programs. Our funding is derived from a number of sources:
Donations to offset existing program costs.
Fundraising through our existing partner network.
Outreach to Corporate sponsors.
Sales of our Green Gold for use in tennis courts and other products.
Selling balls as recyclable "NO TRASH" dog balls.
Leveraging of volunteer resources.
In 2019 we signed a three-year partnership with Wilson Sporting Goods – our key sponsor and partner who has generously provided us with some funding and institutional guidance.
Is this model sustainable?
Until we can fully monetize our recycled products we still need support from the tennis community and corporate sponsors. We have grown more sustainable every year since we started in 2017. With more awareness and continuing outreach, we are encouraged this will become a highly successful model for other countries.
What about the sale of recycled tennis balls?
Currently, our recycling line, the PLAY IT GREEN machine, represents a net expense. Given increasing green interest and our commitment to finding new partners and potential products, this is changing. The investment we have made in this new, first-of-its-kind, custom-built recycling line, holds the promise that with increased production and further product R&D, the GREEN GOLD produced may fund much of this initiative.
Will this grow outside of the USA?
Given such a positive response and substantial network growth in the USA and now Canada, we have continued to receive a stream of requests to bring our patented bin system, programs, processes, and intellectual property to other countries. In 2020, we changed our mission to "Recycle and reuse ALL tennis balls" with a goal to spread this mission globally in a considered, cost-effective fashion.