Green

Biodegradable Golf Balls

Being a golf player and environmentally friendly at the same time can be difficult. Take into consideration that in the US alone, around 300 million golf balls are discarded or lost, according to estimations. Then think of the discovery made by the Danish Golf Union’s research which indicates that a golf ball takes between 100-1,000 years to decompose under natural circumstances.

If your golf ball lands in a lake, then once it starts to disintegrate, it gradually releases fairly high levels of zinc into the water. To avert such a situation, a Spanish manufacturer of golf balls has a solution. His invention of an environmentally friendly golf ball might just solve the problem. This golf ball, once it hits the water, starts to dissolve – but that is not all; the golf ball’s inside contains fish food.

The manufacturer, Albert Buscato said that he invented this new environmentally friendly golf ball because he thought it would be a great way of improving on the biodegradable sporting equipment available in the market, which is of course limited.

This new golf ball, named Ecobioball has an outer layer of plastic polymer which is recyclable. This outer layer dissolves completely during the course of two days. The inner ball is made completely out of fish food.

The Ecobioball weighs in at 50.5g, which is a tad lighter than the average golf ball, but can be used for practice sessions. These golf balls are meant mainly for single use – which will bring down its price a fair amount.

Today’s Golfer’s David Connor however says the Ecobioball is far behind and is nowhere close to being a biodegradable golf ball of high quality. He cites this to the low performance associated with the Ecobioball, and says convincing golfers to actually purchase single use golf balls could prove to be quite a task.