What are biodegradable golf balls are made of?
The Miracle of The Modern Ball
Modern golf balls have come a long way since the days of simple rubber golf balls. Advances in material science mean the modern balls are made from all sorts of exotic materials, combined with cost reductions has brought high-performance balls to the masses.
Unintended Consequences
Unfortunately, this has resulted in MILLIONS of balls lost every year. All the advancements of modern chemistry are pilling up in our waterways and will be slowly releasing their contents over the next thousands of years.
The Solution!
This is why we came up with the biodegradable golf ball! What exactly are biodegradable balls made of and how do they differ from regular balls? Biodegradable balls are made from two simple ingredients: corn starch and Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA). Corn starch is a very common household item. Simply the starch from corn, widely used in recipes and food. You probably have used it to thicken up a soup or sauce. PVA is what holds the ball together as you can imagine a ball made of corn starch wouldn’t hold up to regular use. Polyvinyl alcohol is a resin, non-toxic and used in a huge range of applications from medication to foods to packaging. It acts like plastic until it comes in contact with water, then it dissolves away.
So What is The Difference?
The difference between the simplicity of the biodegradable ball and the complex chemicals in a modern high-tech ball is obvious. Biodegradable ball uses 2 materials that biodegrade when in contact with water and leave no lasting impact on the environment while the high tech ball will take upwards of 1000 years to break down and will be adding harmful toxic chemicals and microplastics to the environment the whole time.
Categorised in: Why Green?
This post was written by dyllan