Efforts to create sustainability in tennis include initiatives to recycle used tennis balls and design new ones from eco-friendly materials. Designer Noé Chouraqui's project, Point, utilizes 3-D printing to create recyclable tennis balls and containers. Traditional tennis balls take up to 400 years to decompose, with 125 million discarded annually. The project employs PLA-HR filament, tested for aerodynamic performance, to ensure the new balls match conventional ones in style and function, maintaining familiar design features for visual consistency.
Chouraqui makes a convincing case for why creating recyclable tennis balls matters: existing tennis balls, he notes, can take up to 400 years to break down in landfills.
125 million tennis balls are discarded every year, highlighting the significant waste problem in the sport and the necessity for sustainable alternatives.
The compostable material used to print these tennis balls is known as PLA-HR, specifically designed for tasks like this with promising aerodynamic performance.
Although the design of my ball doesn't require them, I made sure to include the familiar felt lines to retain that visual connection with conventional tennis balls.
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