BillerudKorsnäs has worked with Wilson to design a brand-new environmentally-friendly container for its iconic tennis balls.
Every year, an estimated 350 million tennis balls are sold worldwide, mostly in pressurized plastic containers that are designed to preserve their bounce. As soon as a container is opened, the balls start to lose their pressure. Tennis balls have short lives, compared to their refillable cousins in football, basketball, and American football.
Wilson Sporting Goods seized this opportunity to pioneer tennis balls that rely less on a pressurized core, which in turn enabled them to redesign their packaging, reducing waste generated by plastic containers. They approached BillerudKorsnäs with a challenge: Design an environmentally friendly container to accommodate their innovative tennis balls.
In response, the manufacturer developed a container made from BillerudKorsnäs White, manufactured from 100% natural primary fibres that are recyclable and biodegradable. BillerudKorsnäs says that their product brought the ideal strength and grammage for safe transport of Wilson’s newly designed balls while providing a “brilliant” medium for graphic packaging.
Speaking on the collaboration, Robert Testa, Sales Director of BillerudKorsnäs Managed Packaging America said: “Partnering with Wilson to develop the “sweet spot” between sustainability and performance to improve both the environment and their supply chain is exactly the kind of opportunity we look for at BillerudKorsnäs to challenge conventional packaging and deliver innovative solutions.”
