Why Tennis Balls are an Environmental Disaster 

I’ll be honest, my mouth fell open when he said that most people throw away tennis balls after a single session. I can almost understand the top-level professionals, but I find it astounding that it could be the standard for most people playing tennis.

As a furniture designer i would love to have all those used tennis balls. I have already done a couch out of them for my home tennis club and everybody loves to sit on it.

Wow I've never heard of this before, Thank you so much for making such an excellent video with all these details!

Wow, I had no idea that tennis balls were such an environmental issue. Thanks for educating me! Good thing I'm so cheap I almost never throw out my tennis balls, but rather add them to my "for serve practice" bin. lol

We have a box for used tennis balls at our club, from which beginner players can take some whenever they like. They're also pretty good for practicing certain parts of your serve, even as an advanced player. That way, they're at least getting used a bit more.

as somebody who loves the environmental and loves tennis, i can't believe i never considered this! thank you so much for the video, i'm annoyed with myself

All tournaments everywhere could donate their used tennis balls which would be given to any non professional anywhere. But, this would mean less money for Penn, Wilson, Daidem, etc. So, money runs the show. Always has always will. There are many solutions, but all would mean less profit for tennis ball companies.

This might one of your best videos yet, both in theme and in visual design. It’s crazy that such an integral part of our sport contributes so much damage. I bought a case of Triniti balls in January and have not looked back. They bounce better, they last a lot longer, and the sleeves are very slick. Highly recommend them.

I was working on an alliance of tennis clubs that advertise free dog balls for the wider public in northern Sydney, but everything stalled out. I hope this video can give them a good push in the right direction. It's such a shame that tennis balls for dogs are even sold when there's so much tennis ball waste from tennis clubs. I want to make tennis balls for dogs in shops and pet stores a redundant product someday.

Dominic Thiem would approve of this video. He’s big on environmental issues, especially in the ocean!

I think tennis as a sport is extremely lucky to have you making videos. The editing, research, and passion you put into these videos are really inspiring. Keep up the good work!

As for many casual European players, we still use the same balls for months, sometimes years on end, hitting them at least once a week.

So cool that you've brought this issue to light, in conjuction with the whole Team Seas thing! Thanks

Love seeing how all kinds of creators in different niches incorporate team seas. Well done!

Thank you for this video - I had no idea how bad tennis balls were for the planet. Something must be done.

Really glad you were willing to put your channel on the line by talking about the unsustainable practices surrounding tennis balls. I had no idea about any of this and found it extremely informative and eye opening.

"If you think its all doom and gloom don't worry" :) "It gets worse" :(

I use a Pressure Tube so my Tennis Balls hold on till the felt is gone.. I also use Triniti or pressureless balls for training. Dont get it why one would only train once with a can of balls, like who plays on that level where that matters 😂

Love to see you upload my man - Cheers

Love these videos..feels like your uploading more often now

let me provide a solution ... in Argentina I started a local movement among some players ... in which each one breaks their tennis balls ... puts them in 5-liter or more water bottles and together with first-use plastics. .. we transform it into eco-bricks ... which are then used for multiple purposes ... and the cost is 0 dollars

I don't or very very rarely watch tennis. Last match i watched was easily a good 10 years ago, yet these videos are super entertaining. When you can make videos where people have little to no prior interest in the main topic of your videos, you know you're making some great content! Keep it up Cult Tennis 👍

omg I've been using the same 6 balls for the last 3 months, how can non-professional players throw them away after 1 session?😭😭😭

That's why I'm happy my club has switched to Wilson Triniti balls. They are shipped in big boxes that can be recycled and the balls last longer so the club is not opening new balls for their lessons. Just imagine each tennis cart in a club holds 4 cases of tennis balls which has 24 cans times that by 4 that's 96 tennis balls cans that can't be recycled.

This was a mystery that has revealed to me just now. Thank you cult tennis for this video. Keep your content unique 🙌🏼

Wow this is crazy! Glad you made this! Editing on point like always 💪

The quality of your videos are really amazing..Talking about topics that everyone should know.

I never knew this, I hope the situation improves for the better to make the balls more sustainable. #TeamSeas

Great video as always mate :) Very eye opening how big of an impact the tennis balls has on the environment

My capstone design project for my bachelor degree was building a large scale device for a local tennis club to repressurize their balls. I've long since moved away, so I don't know for certain, but I hope they're still using it.

Great work! I really enjoy your content/channel and just wanted to say thank you. Truly great work.

I am thankful to you for the content. Luckily i found your channel on RU-vid now i can learn more about tennis rather than just playing it.

Hey man love you’re content. You’re videos are really interesting. You are so underrated. Keep it up!

1:38 that sound is SOO satisfying

Thank you for making this video and bringing light to this topic, I had never thought about it before

Very important video! Thank you for educating me about this!

Throwing a ball in the bin is a dumb move. An overwhelming majority of the most casual players cannot even distinguish between a new ball and a flat ball - just leave them on the club table or by the side of the court, a use will be found for them

Cult tennis is the gift that keeps on giving

Not a tennis fan. Been watching your channel for about a month now. Think it’s amazing that even with your love for the game you are aware of this is issue and bringing awareness to it!

I have been using a tennis ball pressure can for years. Stores the balls in a pressure volume so it can be used again.

Our Cult leader only speaks when its absolutely necessary.

Love the Team Seas concept. I just found it about it yesterday after watching Mark Robert's video. I will definitely donate 😁

Great video as usual. Thanks for the info. Donating to TeamSeas now.

Best Tennis RU-vid Channel ..................Greetings from Germany!

One of the best channels on RU-vid (not just Tennis related)

You can repressurize old tennis balls in a corny keg if you want to reuse them till they are bald.

The fact that this video has significantly fewer views than your others is extremely depressing. Thank you for your suggestion of the Wilson Triniti balls - I'm going to pick some up tomorrow.

Another brilliant video, glad to see a topic that regardless of tennis level we can all contribute to

What a great video editing, so insterresting and cool. Keep the great work

As a non tennis player, I didn’t know that the lifespan of balls was so short.

Thank you for this video! Becuase of this I negotiated to put a recycle bin for tennis balls in the local club I play in.

excellent, yet alarming video. thank you for posting it.

At my club my coach repressurizes his balls as long as he thinks they still have a ok amount of fluff, so their lifespan is basically doubled

In the State of Hessen, Germany, we had to play with triniti pro balls this year for the first time. People hated it and for some it lead to arm problems.

I’ve been playing tennis since I was 3 and didn’t even think about the environmental costs of a ball, that’s crazy…

Superb video LETS DEMAND BETTER FOR THIS SPORT

I had no idea tennis balls saw this little use in their lifespan. Kids and families probably use tennis balls until they break but professionals use them for 30 minutes then throw away. Unbelievable

Man , you always make dope videos

@7:17 those aren’t tennis ball that’s a tree that drops really big green fruit. Nearly tricked me!

Great initiative to keep the planet and make the sport green

Some links would have been dope for those ball recycle places

I was thinking about waste and tennis... as my local club goes thru so many balls, and when you watch the pros smash sticks, basically turning them into garbage, and when you re-string a stick, that left over racquet string waste.

Never thought about this! Great video

What a great video! Thank you

Being a tennis fan has never made me feel so guilty until now 😭

My friends and I try to get as much use out of a can of balls as possible, but I find using old balls hard on the elbow.

Really appreciated this video. Will be looking into some more sustainable solutions.

Seriously. I go to a nice spot in Maine in the summer I’ll be honest there are two tennis courts that people can sign up to play on. The woods around it are littered with old tennis balls that cleared the fence. It’s kinda sad really.

Having played tennis in Zambia for years, I can confirm tennis balls can be used for years. Rain, sun, mud, dogs, tennis balls can still be used in a match

Thats why i use pressureless balls. You use them much much longer so you dont need to keep buying. I use babolat gold academy balls.

Thank you for this video!

Cult tennis is actually the best RU-vid channel

As much as I love unboxing and using pressurized balls. I'm willing and going to make the change over to renewable balls. Ordering some Trinitis now!

pro tip: if you stay in the stadium long enough, you can just ask for a ball that the match was played with

I never realized u could only use a tennis ball like 2 sessions

When I use pressurized tennis balls, I only open 2 cans at a time and use a ball saver to store them when not it play. And I get a 20-30 hours of play from 2 cans of pressurized balls. But when teaching my girlfriend to play tennis, you need a lot more balls than that, so I was looking for pressure-less balls that feel the same as pressurized. Discovered the Wilson Triniti line of balls at at local tennis shop and now I swear by them. They feel as good as a day's worth of play old pressurized balls left in the ball saver. A box of balls 72 balls lasts more than a year. And the box now even comes without the individual cardboard tubes to pack them into packs of 3. That saves me even more time when I have to load the hopper with dozens of balls.

Fantastic video! It's a shame these trinity balls are so expensive.

Great job with the research, cult tennis!

In love with this channel

Been watching tennis for sometime now but never thought about this issue

I had no idea people threw away their tennis balls after playing with them. That's wild.

and here i am using 2 year old ball still

I’m an environmentalist and tennis player - this video made me so happy (and sad!).

Anyone here ever played with those recycled/recyclable balls? How do they play compared to traditional balls?

Ngl this is not even an issue for me because I have been using the same tennis balls for years

What would be a double win is if we came up with renewable balls that would undo the advantages gained by using ultra-light, ultra-powerful graphite rackets with large heads and very large sweet spots. These rackets not only force players to resort to incorrect grips and swings to control their power, but having done this those players now have an insurmountable advantage over any players who, for whatever reasons, still use the correct ground stroke techniques.

Usually the whole "donate 1$, remove 1 pound of plastic from the seaside" boils down to whatever company/NGO paying 20 cent/hour to someone who needs the job in an underdeveloped country at a spot where there are tons of plastic. Thus turning a huge profit on good people's acts and intentions. I'm not saying this project is doing so, just warning people who may not know about the practice. That being said, amazing video as always. Very interesting, informative and entertaining!

Well I'm happy i paid for curiosity stream even tough i haven't used it once.

Thanks for informing this..

Triniti as bad as it gets. First first hour it feels like rock, but then ball gets naked. Felt doesn’t stay long.

Outstanding video!

In Europe, Tennis-Point is spreading recycling boxes especially for Tennis balls, such as the Wilson box in the video. I would greatly appreciate if the outer layer will be made of natural fibres instead of the plastic ones. I sometimes see particles flow around me after big hits, some of them even fly into my mouth. And most balls look like shoven after just one hour. I occasionally pop one or two of them, even when they are new. The Trinity ball is no solution however. These are terrible cannonballs, my arm even hurts when I just think about them. The pro version is no better.

Please do an episode on poly strings. I play with full bed of Völkl Cyclones but it does go dead after 2 weeks of play (4-5x sessions per week). I can’t help to think that’s terrible for the environment as I’m cutting the strings each time. Yet with different companies using different additives, there’s no way it can be recycled?

I was thinking of getting back into tennis and as just researched tennis balls and dismayed there weren't better solutions already. The Wilson and Renewaball sound promising but we need circular (recyclable) and microplastic free balls now. I wish there were an environmental group working on this with a petition and advocacy to get our sport to do its part.

Wow this was really interesting, I’m going to try and change the way I use tennis balls and try and get a more sustainable brand of tennis ball.

My match play ball go into my hopper for serve practice. I've only bought 2 cases in the past 2 years and I still have most of those balls.

Every open drain in my city has tennis balls in them. They're everywhere.

I switched to the Triniti because of the issue of waste. They're great balls and they last much longer. I also love the cardboard tube. Would be incredible if they eventually make them fully recyclable. I'll have to look into the ball recycle program to see how to get a box at my courts

I use a ball repressurizer to extend the life of tennis balls. Effectiveness varies with ball brand, but they last much longer than balls stored without pressurization. Then I recycle them into other projects so they don't go to waste.

I hit with my tennis balls for maybe 4-5 sessions and then keep them as a practice tool when I wana just hit out like 20 serves. Eventually I will have to get rid of some but yeah it's crazy how wasteful it is.