The Mount Gambier and District Tennis Association is getting the ball rolling by doing its part to reduce sport waste in conjunction with the Game on Recycling program.

Game on Recycling is a pilot program that aims to create a national recycling scheme for sports equipment.

Inside the clubrooms at Olympic Park there is a large box for players to donate their used tennis balls to and, once full, it will be sent away in the post to be recycled at no cost to anyone.

Mount Gambier and District Tennis Association president Andrew van den Hurk said the association decided to get involved after being made aware of the initiative by Mil Lel Tennis Club.

“It is a great initiative and an area that has not really been explored in the past,” he said.

“We have already accumulated around 300 tennis balls that are ready to send off for recycling and this number will increase significantly once the season starts.

“We expect to recycle around 500 tennis balls per season as a minimum, but hopefully more.

“Our country uses approximately 10 million tennis balls each year and if we can stop a percentage of these going into landfill, then we can be proud of playing a part in helping our environment.”

The initiative is funded by Australia and New Zealand Recycling Platform Wilson Sporting Goods Co and a government grant from the National Product Stewardship Investment Fund.

All equipment is sent to a processing facility in Melbourne to be sorted and separated into two categories: Items that can be reused and put back into circulation, thereby extending the life of the product, or items that have well and truly come to the end of their life and need to be recycled. 

Re-used items will be made available to various community clubs, groups, institutions and organisations, alleviating the costs of purchasing new equipment.