Wimbledon Starts with Balls

Cute!

Every year, 55,000 tennis balls are used at Wimbledon. Most are thrown away after use.

This year, however, organisers have sought to capture imagination, promoting reuse and recycling while turning used balls into homes for nature.

In partnership with the Wildlife Trust, balls have been donated to protect harvest mice. Unfortunately, there are several reasons why this might actually be a terrible idea.

• It’s a synthetic ball which, when it eventually breaks down, will add to microplastics in the environment and oceans.  

• The attractive neon colour makes it highly visible to predators.

• Mice nibble at their home. When it supplies no nutrients, but fills their bellies, it mimics starvation.

The National Trust has said that this is bad practice and doesn’t want to see discarded Wimbledon waste in its hedges.

What do you think?