VOA新闻杂志2023--Tennis Looks for Solutions to Tennis Ball Waste

Tennis Looks for Solutions to Tennis Ball Waste

The sport of tennis has a problem with waste that many players do not even recognize each time they open a new container of game balls.

The balls are not recyclable. Almost all of the 330 million balls manufactured each year end up in waste, or garbage, landfills. Once there, it can take as long as 400 years for the balls to decompose¹. Major professional tennis competitions go through nearly 100,000 balls during two weeks of play.

The problem of tennis ball waste has sent ball makers², tennis officials, and recycling companies looking for solutions.

Nickolas J. Themelis is director of Columbia University's Earth Engineering Center.

"Tennis balls, like a lot of objects, are made to be indestructible, which means they're very resistant³ to mechanical processing," he said.

"But do you take a useful object that lasts forever and say people shouldn't use it because it lasts forever? That's nonsense," he added.

Themelis and other experts note that tennis balls make up a tiny percentage of the hundreds of millions of metric tons of garbage produced every year. He says part of the solution is finding ways to do other things with the balls.

"Anyone who would say you shouldn't play tennis because of the tennis balls is misinformed," said Jason Quinn, director of Colorado State University's Sustainability Research Laboratory. He added, "There are things you can do to reuse and repurpose tennis balls to lessen⁴ the impact."

Individual used balls sometimes become playthings for dogs or are re-used in other small ways. But, huge numbers of used balls can also be crushed to pieces for use as building material, like flooring.

Tennis ball materials

However, experts and environmental groups say that still does not solve the problem of tennis ball recycling. The balls' outer soft layer, called the felt, is strongly attached to a soft center. The felt is a combination of wool and nylon which cannot be recycled.

In addition, the center of top-level balls are made with rubber from rubber trees. Environmental groups say this leads to deforestation in the Amazon.

Jason Collins is chief of international racquet sports for Wilson Sporting Goods company. He said that its top-level balls use rubber directly from the trees. However, he said Wilson also makes other tennis balls that include recycled rubber material.

Working on the problem

The International Tennis Federation⁵ (ITF) is a governing body of professional tennis. Last year the ITF brought together manufacturers, tennis officials and recyclers to begin working on the tennis ball issue. The group is working to find answers to questions such as: Is there a way to design a fully⁶ recyclable ball? Can the ITF change rules so balls are used longer in play? How well do various kinds of balls perform at different levels of play?

Currently, professional players change to a new set of balls after the first seven games and then after every nine games.

Jamie Capel-Davies is the head of science and tech at ITF. He said there are four levels in the effort to reduce the waste.

"First of all, to try and reduce the number of balls that are being used. Then reuse balls as best we can. Recycling is third," he said.

The fourth level is disposal, meaning placing the balls in landfills. Most balls are disposed into landfills.

Manufacturers and recyclers have begun taking steps to reduce and reuse balls.

Wilson Sporting Goods introduced its Triniti ball that keeps air inside the core longer and has a stronger felt.

Vermont-based RecycleBalls says it expects to collect 3 million tennis balls this year from across the U.S and Canada.

"We believe in multiple lives for tennis balls," said RecycleBalls leader Erin Cunningham. But, the group does not want the used balls to stay forever in their storage center.

"We need to make sure that there's actually demand for recycled product on the back end," Cunningham said.

Columbia University's Themelis believes the final resting place of tennis balls should not be landfills but waste-to-energy plants that burn garbage to generate electricity.

However, opponents of the idea say burning the balls to create electricity also adds to air pollution. They say there are better and cleaner new uses.

Words in This Story

recycle -v. to process material, such as paper, glass, or plastic, in order to use it again

decompose -v. to chemically break down

layer -n. a piece of material that covers a surface or is between two other things

racquet -n. an oval shaped bat with strings⁷ across it, used to hit balls in sports such as tennis, squash and badminton

actually -adv. true in fact; in reality

1 decompose   

vi.分解；vt.（使）腐败，（使）腐烂

参考例句：

• The eggs began to decompose after a day in the sun.鸡蛋在太阳下放了一天后开始变坏。
• Most animals decompose very quickly after death.大多数动物死后很快腐烂。

2 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 resistant   

adj.(to)抵抗的，有抵抗力的

参考例句：

• Many pests are resistant to the insecticide.许多害虫对这种杀虫剂有抵抗力。
• They imposed their government by force on the resistant population.他们以武力把自己的统治强加在持反抗态度的人民头上。

4 lessen   

vt.减少，减轻；缩小

参考例句：

• Regular exercise can help to lessen the pain.经常运动有助于减轻痛感。
• They've made great effort to lessen the noise of planes.他们尽力减小飞机的噪音。

5 federation   

n.同盟，联邦，联合，联盟，联合会

参考例句：

• It is a federation of 10 regional unions.它是由十个地方工会结合成的联合会。
• Mr.Putin was inaugurated as the President of the Russian Federation.普京正式就任俄罗斯联邦总统。

6 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

7 strings   

n.弦

参考例句：

• He sat on the bed,idly plucking the strings of his guitar.他坐在床上，随意地拨着吉他的弦。
• She swept her fingers over the strings of the harp.她用手指划过竖琴的琴弦。