L-R: Yves Nosbusch, member of the Executive Committee of BGL BNP Paribas; Karine Degregori, FLT Board member; Claude Lamberty, FLT President;
Credit: Raoul Somers
The Luxembourg Tennis Federation (Fédération luxembourgeoise de Tennis - FLT) has teamed up with BGL BNP Paribas to launch the "Responsible Tennis" project.
Tennis is the world’s fourth-most polluting sport, with over 300 million balls used each year. Although Luxembourg is not among the worst offenders, it still consumes 200,000 tennis balls (i.e. eleven tonnes) annually. The ubiquitous yellow ball is 82% made from rubber. Although rubber can be recycled, Luxembourg does not currently have a recovery facility.
Therefore, the Luxembourg Tennis Federation, together with BGL BNP Paribas, has launched the "Responsible Tennis" project. The plan involves recovering used tennis balls and transforming them into sports flooring via a five-stage process: the balls are first collected from tennis clubs in the Grand Duchy before being crushed at a special facility in Passel in France; the new material is then transported to Bad Berleburg in Germany, where it is transformed into watertight flooring; finally, the new flooring is installed in sports halls and playgrounds, etc.
"I'm excited to be teaming up with the Luxembourg Tennis Federation, which is a good illustration of our desire to help build a more sustainable future for society as a whole", commented Yves Nosbusch, member of the Executive Committee of BGL BNP Paribas.
Claude Lamberty, President of the Luxembourg Tennis Federation, added: "We're delighted to have a solid partner such as BGL BNP Paribas to support us in our aim of making tennis more sustainable. We strongly believe in leading the way and showing responsibility, and this project enables us to take the Luxembourg tennis world to new horizons".
