USTA SoCal Celebrates Earth Day with a New Green Initiative 

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At USTA Southern California, our two favorite things are both round and covered in fuzzy green(ish) stuff: Earth and tennis balls.

One helps us rally, the other keeps us alive, so we need to take care of both. And hey, just like there’s never a bad time to hit the courts, there’s never a bad day to do a little good for the planet. Whether you’re recycling your old gear, biking to the courts, or planting a tree after every loss (we admire the commitment), small steps make a big impact.

This Earth Day, we’re excited to introduce a new eco-friendly partnership and share a few simple ways you can help take care of our planet, on and off the court.

Protect Our Planet

Every April 22, nearly a billion people across 193 countries come together to celebrate Earth Day. This annual celebration first began back in 1970 as a day to bring awareness and support environmental causes. It encouraged people to think about the earth in both big and small ways and to make more earth-friendly decisions — through how they voted, which companies they supported, how they traveled, and the products they chose to buy. Beyond making thoughtful choices, it also urged and inspired people to take action: recycling more often, picking up trash and litter, planting trees, and treating natural resources with greater care and respect.

Basically, the motto of “protect our planet” became a battle cry that the creators of Earth Day hoped would change the future for the better.

Almost 60 years later, that same spirit of action fuels what we’re doing here at USTA Southern California. “Protect our planet” remains more than just a mission and motto, it’s a movement; one that we are proud to champion. Our unwavering commitment to the environment and sustainability has led to an exciting and inspiring new partnership with Rewilder, a trailblazing, woman-owned local company that’s redefining what zero-waste fashion looks like. Using 100% salvaged, high-performance materials, Rewilder transforms industrial-grade waste into incredibly cool, functional bags that are as bold as they are unapologetically eco-conscious. Handmade in Los Angeles, these bags represent the kind of creativity and environmental responsibility we’re proud to support, perfectly aligning with our values and our vision for a greener game. 

USTA Southern California X Rewilder Bags

Jennifer “Jenny” Silbert, the Master Scavenger of Rewilder, invites you to reexamine your relationship with garbage. Jenny and her business partners Lisa Siedlecki and Stephanie Choi are modern day alchemists. The trio spin straw into gold by transforming high-quality trash–discarded banners, recalled airbags, manufacturing waste–into stylish, durable bags.

Rewilder uses industrial strength materials, many of which are designed to last forever, to creatively and stylishly protect our planet. The brand started in 2014 when Jenny and Lisa recycled cloth beer filters used in the manufacturing of craft brews to make bags and aprons. Now with a decade of experience and a virtual dump’s worth of gorgeous new garbage, Rewilder has risen to the top of eco-fashion’s most elite trash heap. 

Rewilder has used banners to create bags many times before, for bands and brands like Coldplay, MOCA, and the Hollywood Bowl. Now, they’re doing the same with us. Together, we’re turning our used competition and promotional banners into limited edition pouches and totes that will be used as player gifts.

So how did this collaboration begin? The partnership originated with Julian Grigaux, a member of our 2024 Summer Associate Program and current senior at Tulane University, whose passion for sustainability kickstarted our  initiative. Seeing an opportunity to reduce ecological footprint and plastic consumption, he presented a sustainability proposal.

Our Senior Director of Marketing, Gailor Large, explains: “Last summer Julian came to us with a vision for reducing our carbon footprint, which sparked our upcycling efforts. He introduced us to Rewilder and from there it moved quickly into R&D. Maria Goldberg, our Senior Director of Competition and Michael Scalera, our Event Production Coordinator got to work taking inventory of banners and brought this to life on our end.” 

While we met with a few upcycling companies, Large explains that Rewilder was a natural fit: “First, the fact that they are based in SoCal and founded and run by women were major draws. Second, in an early meeting, they came to the table with incredibly inspired, wide-ranging ideas. There are endless opportunities for more sustainability in tennis, so we are excited to see where the partnership takes us.”

Marvelous Medals & Trophies

Once our banners-to-bags initiative was underway, we had another question for the Rewilder team. What else can you spin into gold? And maybe even silver and bronze?

Their answer? Medals and trophies made using recycled tennis ball canisters. 

If you’ve ever cracked open a fresh can of tennis balls, you know the feeling—it’s the best smell and sound in the world. But what happens after the match? Tens of thousands of these single-use items are discarded each year. The cans are made of four plastics and aluminum, and while technically recyclable, most end up in the trash. 

So we challenged Rewilder to figure out how to reuse them. Right now, they’re making the final tweaks on a new design and technology that will allow them to recycle almost the entire canister, a project that Jenny considers one of her favorite things that Rewilder has ever done: “It’s so mission aligned, and we’re thrilled with how willing USTA Southern California is to experiment and commit to the unknown.”

What Can Tennis Players Do for the Environment?

Earth Day is just one day of the year, but there are things that each of us can commit to doing year round. We asked Jenny for her best suggestions, and added a few of our own:

#1 – Bring your own refillable water bottle. Take advantage of refill stations and water fountains. Avoid using single-use water bottles whenever you can!

#2 – Donate, sell, or gift your old gear. When you outgrow your gear, keep it in the tennis world by giving it away. Share used clothes, shoes, and rackets with other players.

#3 – Reuse tennis balls. Rather than tossing used tennis balls, find ways to repurpose them, like using them for dog toys, or donating them to schools or community centers…and stay tuned for a (potential!) ball recycling program from USTA SoCal in the year ahead.

#4 – Get involved in local environmental initiatives. Enlist your tennis friends to participate in beach or park clean-up events or tree planting efforts.

#5  Eco-friendly travel. Whenever possible, walk, bike, or carpool to the courts. You’ll reduce emissions – and can increase your fitness or catch up with friends.

#6 – Finally, be proud of being an environmentalist! Talk about sustainable methods openly. We live in a world where water bottles are trendy and thrifting is cool–so you can feel totally comfortable talking about the ways in which you protect our planet.