With the National Bank Open now over, the facilities at IGA Stadium are already being dismantled. But what do we do with the thousands of balls used during the competition? Here is Mathieu Prost's report.

Following an idea from the Blainville Tennis Association, the City has acquired 50 boxes dedicated to the recovery of tennis balls. This new initiative is inspired by the Tendev organization, whose mission is to make the practice of tennis less polluting.

Four hundred years. That’s how long it takes a tennis ball to decompose. With the goal of giving back to the sport that has given him so much, entrepreneur Pierre Langlois launched Recycle Balles Canada, an initiative that recycles up to 100,000 tennis balls per year in Quebec.

Generally, between 18 and 24 balls are required during a National Bank Open match. And the time it takes for a ball to decompose is 400 years. Quite a bit longer than their lifespan.

Pierre Langlois, president of Tendev, his son Marc-André and Claude Bazin, president of the Tracel Tennis Club, pose with a box of Recycle balls on a court in the Cap-Rouge district, in Quebec.