You've got a bag of old tennis balls sitting in the garage and you're not sure what to do with them. Throwing them in the trash feels wrong — and it is. Tennis balls take roughly 400 years to break down in a landfill, and around 125 million get tossed in the U.S. every year.
The good news: you've got more options than you think. Here's a clear rundown of what to do with old tennis balls, from the easiest five-minute fix to the option that actually recycles the rubber.
400 yrs
To break down in a landfill
125M
Trashed in the U.S. each year
$0
To do this the right way
The Options
6 things to do with old tennis balls
Recycle them through a real program
This is the only option that actually keeps the rubber out of the ground long-term. Curbside bins won't take tennis balls — they're a sealed sandwich of rubber, felt, glue, and dye that standard facilities can't separate. You need a specialty processor.
Two paths work for almost anyone:
- Drop them at a BallBack bin if you're in our network. Free, walk-up, takes 30 seconds.
- Mail them to RecycleBalls if you have 50+ balls and no local bin. They send a prepaid box.
Donate them to an animal shelter
Shelter dogs go through tennis balls fast, and most shelters happily take donations. Call ahead — some only accept balls that still have a little bounce, others take anything that fits in a dog's mouth. This isn't permanent recycling, but a ball that lives in a kennel for a year is a ball that isn't in a landfill yet.
Give them to a school or youth program
Elementary PE classes, after-school programs, and youth tennis clinics all use old balls for low-impact drills, beginner instruction, and warmup games. A "dead" ball is actually perfect for a 7-year-old learning groundstrokes — it bounces lower and moves slower, which is exactly what new players need.
Reach out to a local elementary school, Boys & Girls Club, or junior tennis program. Most are quietly thrilled to get free equipment.
Use them around the house
A handful of practical reuses that actually work:
- Furniture feet. Slice an X into one and slip it onto a chair leg to protect hardwood floors.
- Dryer balls. Two or three in the dryer cuts drying time and softens towels without dryer sheets.
- Garage parking guide. Hang one on a string from the ceiling so it just touches the windshield when you're parked right.
- Walker glides. A go-to for senior care facilities — slit one and put it on the back legs of a walker.
- Tight-spot massage. Lean against a wall with a ball between you and the wall for shoulder and back knots.
Reuses like these are great, but you can only fit so many dryer balls and chair-leg covers in one house. Most of your pile still needs a real exit plan.
Use them as ball-machine or practice balls
Slightly dead balls are perfectly fine for ball-machine workouts, serving practice, or wall hitting. They bounce a little lower, but for repetition work the difference doesn't matter. Save your new balls for matches and run the old ones through the machine.
Set up a permanent collection point at your court
If you play at the same court regularly, the biggest impact you can have is convincing the operator to host a collection bin. One bin at a busy court can route a few thousand balls per year out of the trash. BallBack supplies the bin, signage, and pickups for free — the facility just supplies a corner.
One recycled tennis ball saves about 56 grams of rubber from sitting in a landfill for centuries. A single busy junior program produces enough dead balls to keep that math interesting.
Quick Answers
The questions people ask us most
Can you put tennis balls in the recycling bin?
No. Standard recycling facilities can't separate the rubber, felt, glue, and dye. A ball tossed in a curbside bin almost always ends up in the landfill.
What about the cans?
The metal or plastic cans are usually curbside-recyclable in most cities. Check your local guidelines for the lid — those vary.
Do shelters really want them?
Most do, but always call first. Some have a rotation; others are at capacity. A two-minute phone call saves a wasted trip.
Do they have to be clean?
No. A quick shake to knock off court grit is plenty. Recyclers don't care about a little dirt, and shelter dogs definitely don't.
"The hardest part of dealing with old tennis balls isn't finding an option. It's knowing one exists."
— Prem Kamasani, BallBack
The Honest Answer
If you only do one thing, do this
Reusing balls as dryer balls and chair-leg covers is great, but the math gets old fast — most households produce more dead balls in a year than they can find creative uses for. The single best thing you can do with old tennis balls is route them through an actual recycling program. It takes one trip, costs nothing, and the rubber gets a second life as playground footing or new court material instead of sitting in a landfill for the next four centuries.
Have a pile to get rid of?
Pick the option that fits your stack. All free, all routed through verified recycling and reuse partners.
Old tennis balls don't have to be trash. Now you know what to do with them.
