We did it. BallBack just crossed 40,000 tennis balls recycled or repurposed. Four years ago this was a couple of cardboard bins zip-tied to a fence at one high school. Today it's a network of 35+ partner facilities, seven student chapters, and a trunk that smells permanently like rubber and felt. We are pumped.
This one snuck up on us. We hit 35,000 a couple of months ago and figured 40K would be a fall thing. Then a few new tennis centers came online, a couple of HOAs cleared out their storage closets, and suddenly the spreadsheet ticked over. So before we go back to driving boxes around Dallas, we wanted to take a second, say thank you, and show you what the last few weeks have actually looked like.
40,000+
Balls recycled or repurposed
35+
Partner facilities
1,100+
Donated to youth programs
The Milestone
What 40,000 balls actually looks like
40,000 is a number that sounds clean on a stat card and absolutely chaotic in real life. It's roughly 2,240 kilograms of rubber and felt that didn't sit in a landfill for the next four centuries. It's hundreds of trunk loads, dozens of UPS drop-offs, and a lot of late nights sorting balls on the kitchen floor while the dog tries to steal them.
40,000 balls is about 2,240 kg of rubber kept out of landfills, where a single tennis ball can sit for roughly 400 years before it breaks down.
New Partners
The tennis centers that pushed us over the line
A big chunk of this milestone came from a wave of new city tennis centers in Dallas that signed on this spring. These are high-traffic public courts where thousands of balls move through every month, and getting a recycling bin in place at this scale is the difference between a few hundred balls saved and a few thousand.
Huge thank you to the staff at Samuell Grand Tennis Center, Kiest Tennis Center, and the rec center crew who said yes to letting us drop bins on day one. None of this works without facility partners who actually care.
Behind The Scenes
One Saturday, one trunk, eight bins
People sometimes assume there's a warehouse somewhere. There isn't. There's a Tesla with the seats folded down, a stack of RecycleBalls boxes, and a route. We load up bins at home, drop empties at the next facility, pick up full ones, and stage everything for the next UPS run.
"Hitting 40,000 doesn't feel like a finish line. It feels like proof that the model works and we should be moving faster."
, Prem, founder
What's Next
50,000 is the next number on the wall
We're not slowing down. The next milestone we're chasing is 50,000 balls recycled, and the path to get there looks like more city tennis centers, more HOA communities, and a couple of new chapters that are about to launch in other states. If you run a facility, coach a team, or just play at a court that throws balls in the trash, this is the easiest possible win.
- To every partner facility that said yes to a bin.
- To every chapter leader running pickups in their own city.
- To every player who walked an extra 30 seconds to drop a ball in a green box instead of a trash can.
- You are the reason 40,000 is a real number and not a slide in a pitch deck.
Want to be part of the next 10,000?
Whether you run a court, want to start a chapter, or just have a bucket of dead balls at home, we'll take it from here.
