Back in Play logo
Twin founders Emily and Katherine standing behind a large pile of bagged, collected pickleballs next to a branded Back in Play collection bin

Smash hard.
Recycle harder.

We’re putting cracked pickleballs Back in Play™, one court at a time.

Find a BinRequest a Bin for Your Facility
Back in Play™
The Problem

What happens to cracked pickleballs? Most of the time, they get thrown in the trash.

Pickleball is growing fast. In 2025, 24.3 million people across the U.S. played the sport, which is a 171% increase in just three years. With about 39 new courts opening every day, more people are playing than ever before. But more players also mean more pickleballs, and more pickleballs mean more cracked pickleballs. An estimated 500 million pickleballs are made each year, and about 475 million get thrown away. That adds up to approximately 25 million pounds of plastic waste piling up in landfills from pickleballs.

So why not just recycle them? Pickleballs are made from polypropylene (PP) or polyethylene (PE) plastic. Even though they are plastic, they cannot go in regular curbside recycling bins because most recycling facilities are unable to sort or process them. As a result, cracked pickleballs usually end up in landfills.

24.3M
people in the U.S. playing pickleball in 2025
500M
pickleballs made every year
475M
pickleballs thrown away
25M lbs
pickleballs in landfills

Sources: SFIA 2025 Topline Participation Report; industry waste estimates.

Our Solution

Place a bin at your court to create awareness and promote recycling.

We place a collection bin at your pickleball facility. You drop your cracked balls in the bin on your way out and we handle everything else at no cost to you or your facility. We collect, count and ship the balls to our recycling partner, P3Cares, a nonprofit that specializes in recycling pickleballs into new products instead of letting them end up in landfills.

When a player cracks a ball and isn't sure what to do with it, we want the bin to be the obvious answer. Our real goal is to change how people think about a cracked pickleball, so that tossing it in the trash stops feeling normal.

  1. You drop

    Cracked or worn-out balls go straight into the Back in Play bin at your facility.

  2. We collect

    Once the bin is full, we collect the balls, count every single ball, and record the impact.

  3. P3Cares recycles

    We pack all the pickleballs into a cardboard box and ship them by USPS to our partner P3Cares to give the pickleballs a second chance.

P3Cares Pickleball Recycling sticker — Cracked and Damaged Pickleballs only, www.P3pbcares.org

Proud collection partner of P3Cares — Lifestyle · Pickleball · Sustainability.

Our Impact

Every ball counts.
Literally, we count every single one.

# of Balls collected
# of Facilities hosting bins
# of Pounds of Plastic kept out of landfills

# of pounds estimated based on ~19 balls per pound (0.78–0.935 oz each)

Where to Find Our Bins

Active bin locations in Bergen County

Bin Active

The Picklr

Fair Lawn, NJ
Bin Active

Passion Pickleball

Midland Park, NJ
Bin Active

Fountain Pickleball

Ramsey, NJ
Bin Active

Downtown Sports

Mahwah, NJ
Bin Active

Bergen County Pickleball Club

Tenafly, NJ
Bin Active

Prestige Pickleball

Northvale, NJ
Bin Active

Bergen Pickleball Zone

Ramsey, NJ
Bin Active

Hudson River Pickleball

Englewood, NJ
Bin Active

PCKLRAMA

Oakland, NJ
Bin Active

Sportime Pickleball

Englewood, NJ

Don’t see your court? Request a bin — it’s free.

Request a Bin
Twin sisters Emily and Katherine dropping cracked pickleballs into a Back in Play collection bin on a grass lawn
About Us

Twin sisters. Single mission.

We’re Emily and Katherine, twin sisters from Bergen County and competitive pickleball athletes with state and national titles. We started Back In Play because we love the sport, but hated seeing so many cracked balls get thrown away.

It all started with one question we asked at a tournament: “Hey, what do we do with this broken ball?” The answer? “Just throw it out.”

There had to be a better way.

So we made one. That one question turned into recycling bins at ten facilities and counting. Now we’re on a mission to get the word out to our pickleball community that broken balls don’t have to end up in a landfill. They can be collected, recycled, and given a second life instead.

Right now, we’re funding Back In Play ourselves with the money we earn from teaching pickleball lessons and any prize money we win from local matches. All of this helps pay for the shipping costs to send the balls to the recycling center.

We believe our actions can make a real difference. We hope other teens will join us in reducing waste and creating a more sustainable future. If you play pickleball and want to help keep cracked balls out of landfills, we’d love to have you on the team.

Have questions, ideas, or a facility that wants to join? Email us at backinplaypb@gmail.com.

Keep Pickling! 🥒Pickleball

Get Involved

Everyone has a part to play.

Players

Drop cracked balls in any Back in Play bin instead of the trash. That’s it.

Facilities

Host a bin. It costs you nothing and takes two square feet. We handle pickup and shipping.

Host a Bin

Future ambassadors

Not in Bergen County? We’re building a network of teen-led chapters nationwide. Email us to bring Back in Play to your town or county.

Become an Ambassador