LA Students Recycle 22,000 Sports Balls, Break World Record

A group of high school students just smashed a world record while solving a waste problem hiding in plain sight at tennis courts and pickleball facilities across America.

Another Bounce, a student-led recycling initiative launched in February, collected over 22,000 tennis balls and pickleballs in a single day at Reed Park in Santa Monica. The haul weighed more than 2,600 pounds and earned them a Guinness World Record.

The project started when the 13 students, all racket sports players, noticed balls being tossed after just a few uses once they lost their bounce. They discovered that over 330 million tennis balls end up in landfills every year, where they take 400 years to decompose.

"I noticed how we would be using these balls in the tournaments, and the second they were done, they'd be thrown away," said Boone Casady, a junior board member. "We just tried to start something small, just to recycle a few balls here and there, and it turned into something much bigger," added Leo Mahmoodzadegan, a high school senior on the team.

The students installed collection bins at country clubs including Riviera, Brentwood, and Sherwood, plus Santa Monica High School and Harvard-Westlake School. They partnered with Ridwell, a specialty recycling company that transforms the collected balls into new products or plastic feedstock.

But the students didn't stop at collection bins. They showed up at city council meetings in Malibu, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, and Los Angeles to push for recycling legislation.

"I was a little bit nervous going up there and talking in front of the mayor and all of the council members," Boone admitted. "But I think we're kind of getting the hang of it now."

Their courage paid off. After the students presented at a Malibu city council meeting in August, Mayor Bruce Silverstein asked them to submit a draft ordinance and pledged his support.

The Ripple Effect

What started as a simple idea among teenage athletes is creating waves far beyond LA County. The students are now pushing manufacturers to create take-back programs where customers can return used balls for recycling.

"It doesn't always have to be on us as individuals," said Sheila Morovati, CEO of Habits of Waste, the nonprofit overseeing the project. "What about the ball companies? How come they are not responsible for the end of life of their product?"

The team has bigger dreams too. They want to expand beyond tennis and pickleballs to include baseballs, basketballs, volleyballs, and soccer balls. They even hope to bring their initiative to the Olympics.

Mahmoodzadegan captures the project's core message: "We think it's someone else's problem to go deal with these balls. But at the end of the day, it's our responsibility because we're the ones using them."

When young people see a problem and create real solutions that change policy and break records, everyone wins.