<aside> 💡 We aim to reduce the #1 source of waste in America’s fastest growing sport!
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The Recycle Pickleball Project (RPP) is a volunteer effort by pickleballers with a passion for the game and for sustainability. We were founded under the realization that pickleballs were either being tossed into the trash or rejected at conventional recycling centers. Thus,. we knew we had to make the active effort to make collecting broken pickleballs an accessible and communal effort. We are based here in Austin, Texas.
You may have seen our big yellow Minion-looking tube installed at your local pickleball court. Please toss your broken pickleballs inside this tube instead of into the trash. It can hold up to 11 pickleballs and will be emptied weekly.
In the current state of things, pickleballers are advised NOT to directly toss pickleballs into conventional recycling bins. Pickleballs are usually made from LDPE (low-density polyethylene), also referred to as “plastic #4“. LDPE is a thermoplastic with many useful properties such as durability, flexibility, and a resistance towards breakage (except by pickleballers haha). The rigid form of LDPE is used to make squeezable condiment bottles like for ketchup, and the container lids from plastic bottles.
While pickleballs are made from recyclable plastic, they still may not be accepted by recycling centers. Unfortunately, not all recycling centers have the proper resources to take pickleballs as they are small and could jam sorting machinery.
Similarly, pickleballs are not marked with their respective Resin Identification Number (RIN) - Plastic #4. You may have seen a RIN before on the bottom of your plastic bottles. These are mandatory in most US States to help facilitate the collection, disposal, and recycling of plastic products in the post-consumer stage. Unfortunately, pickleballs do not come with an RIN embossed onto the surface, thus creating another headache for pickleball recycling.
Recycling centers are designed to sort common household waste like plastic bottles and cartons. Thus, even if Pickleballs are an accepted plastic material, they may still be removed from the sorting facility as a non-accepted product. And thus because pickleballs cannot go through recycling centers, they are instead sent to landfills.
Thus, our duty to sustainability as pickleballers does not end with tossing the pickleball into the recycling bin, but instead begins with finding intelligent ways to collect and recycle.
Just toss your broken pickleballs in here, easy as that!
If you’d like to be involved, please contact me at [email protected]