Salt Lake City – A local pickleball player has initiated a program to recycle old or unwanted pickleballs.
Brenda Koga had played pickleball at Fairmont Park. After she heard about pickleball recycling, she wanted to participate in Salt Lake City.
Koga has collaborated with community members, the Salt Lake City Parks Department, and Momentum Recycling to organize a pickleball recycling program.
Momentum Recycling CEO John Lair says more than five hundred million pickleballs are made every year. But, most traditional recycling centers won’t recycle them.
“Brenda reached out to us, about recycling pickleballs, especially given the growing popularity of the sport we just thought it was the perfect thing for us to get involved in,” Lair said.
A receptacle is now available at Fairmont Park. Once it’s filled, Koga sends the used pickleballs to a nonprofit organization, where they are recycled into new pickleballs and a range of other products.
“She was going to start a program collecting them, and she had already communicated with the pickleball manufacturer and arranged for them to take the pickleballs back so that they could be remanufactured back into new pickleballs.”
How this Process Simply Works
“They get put in the recycling bin, and after there’s enough of them to warrant a shipment… Brenda packages them up, she ships them back to the manufacturer,” Lair said.
Up till now more than 200 pickleballs get collected and shipped. Lair says to expand this program more in the future.
