Almost all of the 300 million tennis balls manufactured each year finish their useful life in a rubbish dump. Now, a Belgian eco-designer has started turning some of them into custom furniture in a way that keeps the felt and rubber balls from just becoming more landfill.
In order to create the micro-cushioning parts for her two trademark items, a bench and a chaise lounge, Mathilde Wittock and her crew may manually slice up 1,800 balls per day. When the furniture is completed, one can understand why the two to three weeks it takes to manufacture the pieces are worth it. The tennis balls are really attractive, especially with the fuzz painted to match the inner colours.
Since tennis balls are durable, have a short lifespan, and need 400 years to degrade in a landfill, they were an easy choice for Mathilde when searching for new sources of materials. To put into context just how easily available the materials for Mathilde Wittock’s furniture is, the recently celebrated US Open used 70,000 tennis balls which were then thrown away.
The gas that gives tennis balls their bounce and the reason their packaging is sealed like a soup can are both caused by this gas. Once the ball is open, the gas gradually escapes from its centre, leaving it flat and ultimately unfit for play.
Once the owners of furniture bought from Mathilde Wittock have decided they don’t want the items anymore, they can return them to Wittock, who will burn off the fur and send the rubber shells to be shredded and recycled into kid-friendly play mats.
