Smash hard.
Recycle harder.
We’re putting cracked pickleballs Back in Play™ — one court at a time.
Where do cracked pickleballs go? The trash. Here’s why that’s a problem.
Pickleball is America’s fastest-growing sport — 24.3 million Americans played in 2025, up 171% in just three years, with roughly 39 new courts opening every day. More players means more balls, and more balls mean more cracked pickleballs. An estimated 77 million pounds of plastic waste is created every year from discarded balls.
Pickleballs are made from polypropylene (PP) or polyethylene (PE) plastic. Unfortunately, regular curbside recycling programs can’t sort or process them, so they end up in the landfill.
Sources: SFIA 2025 Topline Participation Report; industry waste estimates.
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.
You drop
Cracked or worn-out balls go straight into the Back in Play bin at your facility. No forms, no shipping, no hassle.
We collect
Once the bin is full, we collect the balls, count every single ball, and record the impact.
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.
Proud collection partner of P3Cares — Lifestyle · Pickleball · Sustainability.
Every ball counts.
Literally — we count them.
Pounds diverted is estimated at ~19 balls per pound (regulation pickleballs weigh 0.78–0.935 oz each).
Active bin locations in Bergen County
The Picklr
Fair Lawn, NJ
Passion Pickleball
Midland Park, NJ
Fountain Pickleball
Ramsey, NJ
Downtown Sports
Mahwah, NJ
Bergen County Pickleball Club
Tenafly, NJ
Prestige Pickleball
Northvale, NJ
Bergen Pickleball Zone
Ramsey, NJ
Hudson River Pickleball
Englewood, NJ
PCKLRAMA
Oakland, NJ
Don’t see your court? Request a bin — it’s free.
Request a Bin
Twin sisters. Single mission.
We’re Emily and Katherine — twin sisters, Bergen County locals, and honestly kind of obsessed with pickleball. 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 nine 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 hope other teens will join us in this movement. 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! 🥒
Everyone has a part to play.
Players
Drop cracked balls in any Back in Play bin. That’s it. You’re a recycler now.
Facilities
Hosting a bin costs you nothing and takes two square feet. We handle pickup and shipping.
Host a BinFuture 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