In Tyler Banks’ garage on Corace Drive, broken pickleballs become keychains, nightlights and coasters instead of landfill waste.

The Mt. Lebanon High School sophomore is the founder of BallBack, a business that collects used and broken pickleballs and transforms them into handcrafted products while encouraging players to recycle their worn-out equipment.

“I noticed how many broken balls are at the courts,” Banks said. “I thought it would be a good idea if someone provided a way to recycle all those balls instead of them just going into landfills.”

Banks installed his first collection bin at the Meadowcroft Park pickleball courts at the end of July and has plans to add another at the Mt. Lebanon Racket Center.

Racket Center Manager Darin Rauso said Banks approached the municipality with the idea, which officials quickly embraced.

“It’s great we have a local high school student that saw the problem,” Rauso said. “He took the initiative and came up with a solution and he’s taking it on himself to empty the bins as well.”

Banks experiments with ways to give discarded pickleballs a second life. He creates products, developing ideas through trial and error before offering them for sale on the BallBack website.

“I’m actually making them all in my garage,” he said. “I’ve experimented with many different products and found some that I thought were the coolest.”

Creating the coasters requires a little creativity.

“You take a heat gun and heat the pickleball and pretty much flatten it,” Banks explained. “Then you put it into a resin mold, pour the resin, and when the resin hardens, it becomes a coaster.”

Banks said the business grew naturally from his love of pickleball, a sport he has played for several years, primarily at Meadowcroft Park.

“I like how it’s easier to learn, easier to play,” he said. “It’s almost like a mix of ping-pong and tennis. You can teach someone how to play it easier than some other games, and it’s fun with a bunch of friends.”

His entrepreneurial spirit, however, started long before BallBack. Banks said he previously earned money by taking neighbors’ trash cans to and from the curb.

“I’ve always been starting little businesses and side hustles,” he said.

His father, Keith Banks, said that entrepreneurial mindset has been evident since Tyler was young.

“He’s always been interested in sales in general,” Keith said. From a young age, going to flea markets and yard sales as a 10- or 11-year-old kid, negotiating and handling prices with people. It was hilarious to watch him.”

Keith recalled his son setting up his own tables at flea markets, selling T-shirts and trying different business ideas before launching BallBack.

“He’s always had this idea of wanting to create something that is his own,” he said.

Rauso said the collection bins give players an alternative to throwing away worn-out pickleballs.

“They don’t have a long lifespan,” Rauso said. “The only option was to throw them out, but now he has a great solution to recycling them.”

As BallBack grows, Tyler hopes more players will drop their used pickleballs into the collection bins, giving them an opportunity to be transformed into something new rather than thrown away.

To shop Tyler’s creations, visit ballbackco.myshopify.com.