Padel and tennis balls are to become fully recyclable thanks to a “ground-breaking new partnership.”
Circular waste management specialists hubba are teaming up with Renewaball to offer a sustainable and circular solution for recycling padel and tennis balls.
Starting this month, hubba will collaborate exclusively with Renewaball to deploy collection bins across the UK’s tennis and padel clubs, schools, and leisure centres.
Their team will collect waste balls, which will then be transported to Renewaball’s recycling centres. There, the rubber will be separated from the felt and transformed into new balls, incorporating 100% sheep wool instead of traditional polyester and/or nylon.
These innovative balls are not only ITF, FEP, and IPF approved but also reduce CO2 emissions by 29% and utilise local sheep’s wool instead of harmful microplastics.
They claim no-one else in the world currently recycles tennis or padel balls in this way.
Every year, millions of tennis and padel balls end up in landfills, taking a staggering 400 years to decompose. Recognising this environmental challenge, Renewaball was founded in 2021 with a mission to offer the world’s first fully circular tennis and padel balls.
Renewaball’s ground-breaking technology has already won the prestigious ‘Initiative of the Year’ award in the Sustainable Brand Index and recognition at the Leaders in Sports Award in London. hubba says their exclusive partnership with Renewaball furthers their commitment to sustainable, circular solutions within the sports industry and beyond.
With approximately 350 million tennis balls used globally each year and 16,000 tennis clubs in the UK alone, the partnership represents an opportunity to address a significant environmental issue.
hubba director, Clive Maple, commented: “We’re thrilled to work with Renewaball’s pioneering technology and look forward to implementing this circular solution across the UK. Together, we can make a lasting impact on the sustainability of tennis and padel sports equipment.”
Hélène Hoogeboom, CEO and co-founder at Renewaball, added: “We are delighted to join forces with hubba. With their extensive knowledge of the circular economy and local connections, they will be instrumental in our collective mission to reduce the carbon footprint of sport.”
