Operating under the umbrella of the U.S.-based 501(c)(3) environmental organization Habits of Waste, the group spent last weekend rounding up an astonishing haul. Student-athletes, families, local advocates, and community members turned out in droves over the weekend of September 19th to donate their used gear, resulting in a staggering collection of approximately 22,000 pickleballs and tennis balls. The massive pile weighed in at a combined 2,675 pounds before being loaded onto trucks and hauled away to a specialized recycling facility.
The initiative targets a staggering environmental blind spot in modern athletics. According to industry estimates, an estimated 500 million tennis, pickle, and racquet balls are sold, served, used, and ultimately discarded across the United States every single year. Experts believe that a mere 1 to 5 percent of these balls manage to escape the traditional fate of local landfills or municipal incinerators. For the remaining 95 to 99 percent, the destination is bleak: either spending up to 400 years slowly decomposing in a landfill or emitting greenhouse gases as they break down.
While artists and innovators have previously experimented with creative outlets to divert this immense waste stream—such as transforming discarded tennis balls into bespoke furniture—the sheer volume of sports equipment discarded daily remains a systemic challenge. Another Bounce aims to tackle this head-on by collecting balls from various Los Angeles-based clubs and parks, routing them to specialized recycling centers, and actively advocating for manufacturers to take greater responsibility by implementing comprehensive end-of-life solutions for their products.
"This record is a powerful visual reminder of the enormous amount of waste generated by sports," said Sheila Morovati, the founder of Habits of Waste. Morovati is no stranger to monumental recycling feats, having landed in the headlines back in 2018 when she set her own Guinness World Record by collecting over one million gently used crayons to donate to 700 teachers in need of classroom supplies.
"By diverting more than 20,000 balls from landfills, we’re showing what’s possible when we rethink the systems we’ve come to accept as the norm," Morovati added.
To incentivize participation during the record-breaking weekend event, organizers rolled out community-friendly perks. Families and local residents who dropped off a full grocery bag of used balls were rewarded with free ice cream. Additionally, participants received brand-new pickleballs generously provided by industry partner Selkirk.
The logistical backbone of the operation relied heavily on modern recycling partnerships. The collected balls from the Another Bounce event will be processed in collaboration with Ridwell, an organization specializing in hard-to-recycle materials. Through this partnership, the rubber and plastic components of the balls are broken down and pelletized. This post-consumer resin is then repurposed into a diverse array of commercial and industrial items, ranging from nursery plant pots and carpeting to durable plastic packaging.
The historic effort did not go unnoticed by local civic leaders, who turned out to witness the event and praise the young environmentalists for their proactive approach to community service and sustainability.
"I am so impressed with the work that they’re doing to remove these balls from the waste stream because the impacts of the trash, the plastic and the pollution on our environment, especially on our sensitive marine habitat, is so impactful," said Los Angeles City Councilmember Traci Park, who attended the weekend gathering to support the youth organization.
Park was not the only prominent local politician to applaud the sustainable sportsmanship displayed by the students. Malibu Mayor Bruce Silverstein was so inspired by the feat that he publicly invited the young advocacy group to take their mission a step further by helping draft local legislation. Silverstein suggested that the teens prepare a formal draft ordinance aimed at supporting the diversion of sports equipment from municipal waste streams, offering to place the proposal on an upcoming city council agenda for official review and discussion.
Organizers view the successful record-breaking event not as an endpoint, but as the ignition point for a much broader cultural shift within the athletic community.
"Today marks the beginning of a much bigger movement for sustainability in sports, and I’m excited to continue working alongside these teens to advocate for city ordinances and infrastructure needed to create real change," Morovati said.
