Tennis Anyone? James Martinez on Tennis Ball Waste

Did you know that over 100,000 tennis balls are used in an average grand slam tournament? And unfortunately, they cannot be recycled. Given the plethora of tennis matches played across the globe in an average year, we are talking about roughly 330 million tennis balls going into landfills annually. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with Associated Press reporter, James Martinez, an avid tennis fan and player, who serves up some insight into tennis ball manufacturing, this waste issue, and some of the creative efforts to help solve the problem – and show the planet a little love. Narrator 00:02 – This is Sea Change Radio covering the shift to sustainability. I’m Alex Wise. James Martinez (JM) 00:18 – You can’t win every match. You’re, you’re not, not always gonna play your best, but you do get a sense of satisfaction out of opening a new can of tennis balls. It’s like a fresh start, and it’s one of the great experiences of, of tennis, but there is a, there is a dark side. Narrator 00:45 – Did you know that over a hundred thousand tennis balls are used in an average Grand Slam tournament? And unfortunately, they cannot be recycled given the plethora of tennis matches played across the globe in an average year. We’re talking about roughly 330 million tennis balls going into landfills annually this week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with Associated Press reporter James Martinez, an avid tennis fan and player who serves up some insight into tennis ball manufacturing, this waste issue and some of the creative efforts to help solve the problem and show the planet a little love. Alex Wise (AW) 01:54 – I am joined now on Sea Change Radio by James Martinez. He’s the Breaking News Investigations Editor for the Associated Press. He’s also taught investigative journalism at Princeton University. James, welcome to Sea Change Radio. James Martinez (JM) 02:07 – Thank you for, uh, for having me.  Alex Wise (AW) 02:09 – I should have also mentioned that you’re a huge tennis fan and player, and you cover the US Open for the ap. The US Open just happened and you had an interesting piece that I wanted to discuss with you entitled “Tennis Ball Wasteland: Game Grapples with a Fuzzy Yellow Recycling Problem.” I never really thought about tennis balls being such a problem, but they are. Why don’t you expand? James Martinez (JM) 02:34 – Well, they are, and that’s one of the, uh, the things that I, uh, look into when I cover the US Open. I’m not necessarily focused on the matches. We have sports writers who are very good at that. I kind of try to focus on, uh, the things that are going on outside the lines that maybe you haven’t thought about before. And one of them is this recycling problem that, uh, tennis has with its balls. And nearly all of the 330 million tennis balls made worldwide each year eventually get chucked in the garbage, uh, with most ending up in landfills, uh, where they can take more than 400 years to decompose. And that’s all because tennis balls, uh, by the very nature, are complex objects that are extremely hard to recycle, and the industry has