00:00Paddle is booming in popularity and is the fastest growing sport in South Africa and globally.
00:16I've been playing paddle for 18 months now. It definitely is a new passion. I absolutely love
00:23it. It's a sense of community, so many new friendships. It's just been really great.
00:27And pretty quickly, Lesley Warteker noticed how many old paddle balls were lying around
00:36her house. But what do you do with them? And where do they go to die?
00:41So when I saw that a paddle ball only lasts two to three games, I did some research on
00:46how many paddle balls the world is using. And between tennis and paddle, we are going through
00:51almost 40 million balls a year. And in South Africa alone, over 100,000 people are playing
00:57paddle. So that's about 1.8 million balls and growing. And this became a sustainability issue
01:03for me. That's a heavy one. With background in advertising and training of young entrepreneurs,
01:12she was bursting with ideas. In December last year, we put in our first bin at one of the
01:18clubs in Cape Town. And from there, it really has exploded. We are now at 65 clubs across the
01:24country. And her garage is bursting with balls. Now what? We're making furniture and we really
01:33want to engage with the creative community and see what the creative industry can come up
01:38with. We want to really create some beautiful, interesting, creative pieces with these used
01:43tennis balls.
01:52Young designer Vusi from Native Decor came up with these incredible concepts.
02:00He jumped on board with the opportunity to create something. And this is what we've created.
02:04He's also created some mirrors and some other items. But the possibilities are endless.
02:11But it was when she approached artist, designer and lecturer Sandile Puzuku that things took off.
02:18Sandile!
02:19Hi ladies, how are you? How are you? How are you? How are you? Oh my word, you finished it?
02:23Yes, yes, yes. So this is one of the products that we've been working on. Using these pedophiles
02:27to recycle them and make sure that, you know, we put them to some good use.
02:31Sandile said his second year design students at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology to work.
02:37So at CPT we have what we call a will policy, which is work-integrated learning. This really
02:44is a mission that we have to allow students to start partaking in work while they're still
02:51studying. And so doing this, they gain this confidence we're talking about. They gain the
02:54entrepreneurship and mindset. So even when they do graduate, they still have a way to generate
03:01some revenue for themselves.
03:01So the reason why we went for a bench was because you wanted something that was usable
03:07for more than one person.
03:09The excitement and the love and the joy that they had for this material was so fun and they
03:15were really creating beautiful designs and that just gave me so much pleasure and they
03:21have really created some beautiful products.
03:27what she's most excited about making a change in these kids' lives.
03:35The idea is to crush the balls and turn them into an astroturf or five-a-side soccer fields.
03:41So we really want to partner with companies that can help us crush these balls, mix them with
03:47a resin and turn them into fields and playgrounds for underserviced communities, underdeveloped communities.
03:52The first recipient will be the school. Headmaster Anthony Mayer says the kids are crazy about
04:03five-a-side soccer.
04:07As you can see, this pitch is all sand and clay. Astroturf will see that the sand doesn't
04:13dissipate or erode any further than where it goes. They will enjoy it here more. As you can see,
04:19they play with school shoes and now they can, if they have an astroturf, they can even play
04:23their feet.
04:29The possibilities are endless and the balls are running in from around the country.
04:34The adoption of this Amazeballs program across the country has just given me so much pleasure
04:44and so much happiness. And when I see the joy that it's giving other people as well, you
04:49know, to make a difference, to create change, to let people start thinking differently about
04:55waste and, you know, creating something beautiful with things that we would normally just throw.
05:00I'll see you in the next one.
05:01Bye.
05:02Bye.
05:03Bye.
05:04Bye.
05:05Bye.
05:06Bye.
05:07Bye.
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