We just crossed 50,000 tennis balls recycled or repurposed. That's ten thousand more since May, which is the fastest stretch BallBack has ever had. The bins are filling faster, the chapters are picking up speed, and the trunk still smells like rubber and felt. We wouldn't have it any other way.
40,000 felt like a big milestone. 50,000 feels different. It feels like momentum. Like the thing we built in Dallas is starting to work in other cities too. So here's what got us here, who's making it happen, and where we're going next.
50,000+
Balls recycled or repurposed
35+
Partner facilities
3,200+
Donated to youth programs
The Milestone
What 50,000 balls actually means
50,000 tennis balls is roughly 2,800 kilograms of rubber and felt that didn't get buried. It's hundreds of hours of student volunteer time, dozens of UPS shipments, and a whole lot of facilities saying yes to a green box by their courts. At this scale, it stops being a side project and starts being a real recycling channel for the sport.
50,000 balls is about 2,800 kg of material diverted from landfills. A single tennis ball can take roughly 400 years to break down.
Momentum
How we got here faster than ever
The jump from 40,000 to 50,000 happened in about two months. A big part of that was city tennis centers in Dallas coming online and staying consistent. Another part was chapters in new cities starting to run their own pickups without us having to micromanage every step.
Shoutout to the teams at Samuell Grand, Kiest, and the rec centers that have turned tennis ball recycling into a normal part of their operations. And to our chapter leaders in New York, Philadelphia, Maryland, and California who are proving this works outside of Texas.
Behind The Scenes
Same trunk. More cities.
People still ask if we have a warehouse. We don't. What we have is a network of student leaders with trunks, a stack of RecycleBalls boxes, and a group chat that never sleeps. We load bins at home, drop empties, pick up fulls, and stage everything for the next UPS run.
"50,000 isn't the ceiling. It's the floor. The next stretch is about making this repeatable in cities we've never been to."
, Prem, founder
What's Next
75,000 is the next number
We're not slowing down. The next target is 75,000 balls recycled, and the path there is more city tennis centers, more HOA communities, and more chapters launching this fall. If you run a facility, coach a team, or just play at a court that throws balls in the trash, this is still the easiest possible win.
- To every partner facility that keeps a bin courtside.
- To every chapter leader running pickups in their own city.
- To every player who walks the extra few steps to the green box.
- You are the reason 50,000 is a real number and not a slide in a pitch deck.
Want to be part of the next 25,000?
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.