EARTH DAY for GLOBALWARMING

The recyclable golf balls of Dixon Golf

Do you think of recycling as something new? 100 years ago people were returning glass bottles for refills of a new beverage called Coca Cola. Recycling is certainly not new. Most of the items we call disposable and allow to fill our landfills with today were at one time expected to be repaired and reused. Another example would be shoes. A good pair of shoes was meant to last 20 years as long as you had them resoled from time to time.

Recently some clever people at Dixon Golf set out to create a recyclable golf ball. They took on this challenge because golf balls, being as durable as they are, represent an item that is virtually indestructible. Nearly 300 million golf balls are discarded yearly in the United States alone representing a definitive green Earth hazard.
Of course a golf ball is not a soda bottle or a plastic bag. It is not a simple item to grind up and melt down to make other goods. In fact, the chemical components of most major manufacturer’s golf balls are some of the toughest to breakdown in existence. Golf ball ingredients include heavy metals such as tungsten, cobalt and even lead. With that said, the folks at Dixon Golf knew that making a biodegradable golf ball was not really an option.
But, like our Coke bottle and pair of Wingtip shoes, perhaps a golf ball could be refilled or resoled. That was the exact development direction Dixon Golf chose. To make a golf ball that could be rebuilt and consequently reused.

This was accomplished by creating a ball that used a different material for its core. The core of a Dixon Golf Ball is made from a special polymer that is 100% renewable. Also, the covers of Dixon Golf Balls are made of materials that are easily recycled to make other consumer products. Every part of a Dixon Golf Ball is reusable from the core to the cover.
Golf balls are manufactured to exacting standards. All of those little dimples in a golf ball act as tiny wings to give the ball aerodynamic lift and control. Inside, the core of a golf ball is designed to compress upon forceful impact from the club. The head of a golf club, swung by an amateur, strikes the ball at an average speed of eighty miles per hour. The release of that compression sends the ball outward at a great speed. Making a golf ball that meets the requirements of amateur and pro golfers alike is no small feat. Making a ball that is also recyclable is almost impossible.
We say “almost” of course, because making a completely recyclable golf ball is precisely what Dixon Golf has done. Dixon Golf has created a superbly crafted high quality golf ball that is the equal of any ball in play today. In independent testing Dixon Golf balls outperformed higher priced Titleist, Nike and Callaway balls. The same test showed that the Dixon Golf “Earth” ball received a 92% approval rating.

So how did Dixon Golf founders and Principals William Carey and Dane Platt create a recyclable golf ball that can out play the best on the market? Fortunately, the owners of Dixon Golf had spent years working in the golf ball industry for a manufacturer that made name brand balls. The construction of a Titleist differs greatly from a Nike ball and neither company is sharing their design secrets. But the principals of Dixon Golf didn’t need anyone else’s secret technology to aid them. They had a combined 30 years of ball making experience between them and knew firsthand the design characteristics that went into making a competitive ball. The trick would be to make a ball out of green materials that was designed from the outset to be rebuilt and resoled. Further, the 100 percent recyclable golf balls would need to perform equally as well as other brand name balls.

But green golf doesn’t stop there. Marketing is a major part of Dixon’s Green Golf Planning. When you purchase a Dixon Golf ball you can trade in your old Dixon Golf ball for a one dollar credit towards the purchase of Dixon Golf balls. Dixon Golf will even give you a 50 cent credit on any non Dixon Golf balls returned. Following through on this marketing swing, all of the materials used to make and market Dixon Golf Balls are recyclable including packaging and displays.
At the present time there are two grades of Dixon Golf Balls, Earth, and Wind. The Dixon Golf Fire ball will be available beginning this summer. Each of these is designed for particular playing conditions and player abilities.
While it is true that a Dixon Golf ball shanked into a pond will still need to be rescued by a diver, at least when it is recovered it can be recycled.