About Us 2 – Recycleballs.org

A PASSION FOR SAVING OUR PLANET

Our Story

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 are spearheading a first of its kind positive change for tennis.

2025 GOALS

OUR TEAM

David Harcourt

David is an Information Systems specialist and has been with Recycleballs from the start. He has been instrumental in developing the many integrated systems that define the Quickship, QuickLabel, and website experiences. Dave created the unique inventory tracking processes as well as most of the functionality in an extensive customer

Erin Cunningham

Erin Cunningham, Executive Director at RecycleBalls, is deeply committed to social impact and sustainability. With a history of successful partnerships with influential nonprofits and global corporations, Erin is experienced in innovative and strategic approaches to effecting change. She brings a passion for collaborative approaches to impact and systems change. Her

Erin Lynn

Erin Lynn serves as the Controller at RecycleBalls, a position she has held for the past four years. Erin enjoys working with non-profit financials and found her love for finance early in her career. Her journey in financial management started at Franklin August Trading Inc. She further honed her skills

Jordan Wooten

Jordan has over 20 years of horse experience and has been a barrel racer all her life. In her spare time she competes in rodeos all over the country or at sporting events for her son. She is the owner of an equine therapy business where the goal is to

Josh Burke

Josh Burke is Recycleball’s specialist in customer succes. He grew up overseas and developed a passion for sustainability while traveling around the world and seeing first-hand the growing issue of single-use products. He was attracted to the mission of Recycleballs because it contibutes to addressing the challenges of handling the world’s

Ric Lashway

Ric has been an executive advisor for Recycleballs for the past 4 years. He has really enjoyed witnessing the growth of the organization and the passion with which tennis players attack a serious problem to improve the environment. He is excited for the trajectory of Recycleballs and for sustainability to

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Ariella Sela

Ariella Sela is an accomplished Sustainability Consultant currently working at Pure Strategies, who brings her expertise in the field of sustainability to the RecycleBalls team.

Corky Cramer

Corky Cramer, an accomplished Professional Tennis Coach and the proud owner of CorTennis! A Colorado State University alumnus with a Bachelor of Science, Corky has

Derrick Senior

Derrick Senior is a seasoned entrepreneur with 30 years of experience in manufacturing, distribution, and management. As a thought-leader and passionate tennis player, Derrick brought

Endre Esztergomi

Endre Esztergomi is a retired Senior Executive with over 20 years of experience in international development with extensive experience in managing international organizations’ accounting, contracting,

Manuel (Mandy) Liongson

Meet Mandy Liongson, a financial powerhouse and the CFO at Keolis Commuter Services after spending nearly a decade working strategic and commercial finance at Phillips.

Margaret Safford

Margaret Safford, an Innovation and Go-to-Market (GTM) Consultant, is a Business Advisor for the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program and Head of the USCommunity

Mike Golub

Mike Golub is a nationally recognized leader in the sports industry, who over the course of his career has stewarded highly successful sports entities across

Natalie Adams Barnes

Natalie Adams Barnes, is the dynamic VP of Product Management & Product Design at Zumba Fitness. Holding a B.S in Marketing from Miami University and

Sophia Agustina

Sophia is a remarkable, trailblazing global marketing leader, she serves as the CEO & Co-founder of Gain Relationship and the Regional Relationship Officer of North

Steven Krieger

Steven Krieger, a distinguished attorney and Managing Partner of Steven Krieger Law, PLLC, with a profound passion for public interest advocacy and serving underserved or

Thomas Daglis

Thomas Daglis joins the RecycleBalls Board from UKG where he is rocking the role of Principle Research Science & Product Strategy Specialist. Thomas brings a

GENERAL FAQS

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.
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.

How did you arrive at 7 biilion balls trashed in the USA since 1874?

Methodology

2010-2021 period. Since virtually all tennis ball production left the US with the end of the first decade of the 21st century, import data for the 2010-2021 period was understood to be a good approximation to the number of balls disposed of in the US in that period. Import data was taken form the World Integrated Trade Solution’s website. Data for 2014 was anomalously low and was substituted by taking the mean of the value for 203 and 2015. When first quarter data was given the annual number was assumed to be four times the first quarter data. Links to sources is given in the addendum.
1874-2009 period. Data from this period originates in newspaper reports of the number of tennis balls sold or used in the US in particular years (with one exception coming from the Tennis Industry Association). Data for 28 years comprised between 1921 and 2007 was obtained in that way. The figures for the years for which no data was found in newspaper archives were imputated through linear interpolation. The figure belonging to the year immediately previous to the year tennis was introduced to the US and the figures corresponding to the years of World War 2 were set to 0.

Number of balls

7.04 billion

(7043608786)

Number of balls by year:

Cumulative number of balls by year:

Year of introduction of the first ball

1874

This is the year that, as far as records can show us, lawn tennis was first played in the US. Though it is not known who and when exactly did it first, it seems it arrived independently at several places within the East Coast.

Source: Collins, B. (2010). The Bud Collins History of Tennis: An Authoritative Encyclopedia and Record Book (2nd ed.). New Chapter Press.

Addendum 1: source links

In order to read most of the linked newspapers a subscription to Newspapers.com is needed. Nevertheless, the newspaper, date and page where the information is found can be seen by clicking in the link (to see the page you have to close the subscription pop-up).

1921: https://www.newspapers.com/image/181447205/

1931: https://www.newspapers.com/image/127615869/

1935: https://www.newspapers.com/image/793641788/

1949: https://www.newspapers.com/image/828770842/

1952: https://www.newspapers.com/image/793641788/

1958: https://www.newspapers.com/image/828770842/

1961: www.newspapers.com/image/807392483/

1962: https://www.newspapers.com/image/383024778/

1967: https://www.newspapers.com/image/317118233/

1968: https://www.newspapers.com/image/451245565/

1973: https://www.newspapers.com/image/775865425/

1975: www.newspapers.com/image/165841245/