Biodegradable Golf Balls: The Ultimate Guide
Biodegradable golf balls are the latest revelation to hit the golfing community and provide an answer to harmful material gathering on golf courses. Most golfers have two things in common – they value nature, and they hit a lot of balls in the water. Though popular courses employ divers to retrieve balls, but the balls often collect and remain over time.
In this post, we’ll go over the harms caused by playing with traditional golf balls, the sustainability of eco friendly golf balls, and where to buy biodegradable golf balls and the top biodegradable balls in the industry.
Environmental Issues With Traditional Golf Balls
Each year, more than 300 million balls are lost in the U.S. alone. More alarming, research teams led by the Danish Golf Union found it takes between 100 to 1,000 years for a golf ball to break down. In addition, other harmful effects of traditional golf balls include:
- Traditional golf balls contain around 300 yards of wound rubber plastic.
- Since the 1950s, of the 8.3 billion tons of plastic produced, 60% is rotting away in the natural environment.
- Many traditional golf balls include zinc oxide, zinc acrylate, and benzoyl peroxide - all very harmful to marine life.
Biodegradable Golf Ball Benefits
Playing a game in nature while helping nature - need we say more? When choosing eco friendly golf balls, you're part of the solution to the planet's pollution problem. For instance, biodegradable golf balls not only break down naturally but also contain no harsh chemicals or compounds. Even better, most dissolve within minutes and feed wildlife. So whether you're using biodegradable golf balls for land, biodegradable golf balls for ocean, or biodegradable practice golf balls, there are many benefits to be aware of.
Water and Ocean Benefits
Apart from golf course lakes and ponds, oceans are a favorite target for golfers. By using biodegradable golf balls for the ocean, marine life is spared toxic chemicals and harmful plastic. Even better, they're biodegradable golf balls with fish food!
Land Benefits
Landfills are part of the plastic pollution problem affecting our planet. Plastic that doesn't wind up in the ocean or water system makes its way to landfills. Consequently, that includes traditional golf balls, which also have many other harmful by-products. With eco dissolvable golf balls, there are no risks other than hitting your ball out of bounds.
Practice Benefits
Practice golfing is one of the more harmful aspects of traditional golf balls. Most golfers value their personalized "game" set much more than the environment and there is a huge industry devoted to churning out cheap, plastic golf balls. Many cruise ships, for example, offer practice golf. By choosing biodegradable golf balls for water, you can feel good about practicing your swing and not harming the environment.
Other Benefits
If you're like most golfers, lost golf balls are the norm. Choose dissolvable golf balls instead! They're great for the environment and give you a little peace of mind. Other benefits include thae fact that they dissolve in minutes, dissolve in water, are completely natural, and contain no heavy metals.
Top Biodegradable Golf Balls
If you're looking to improve your game and the environment, there are three products you don't want to miss out on. While affordable, these are definitely not cheap biodegradable golf balls. All are good for the environment and some even provide fish food through eco-friendly methods.
Albus Golf
Price Range: $51 - $175
Values: Zero-Waste
Producer of the Ecobioball, Albus Golf is another of the first-ever producers of eco-friendly golf balls with fish food in the core of the ball. These biodegradable golf balls with fish food not only protect the environment from harm but add natural food to the marine ecosystem.
Albus Golf is available in 50 countries and operates with the philosophy of protecting the planet without giving up activities we enjoy and make us happy. Fully dissolvable in two days, these balls give fish a nutritious treat and are easy to use. All marine life benefit from the food and are great for playing near all water environments.
Albus Golf balls are certified marine friendly and serve hotels, yachts, events and tournaments, weekend golfers and more.
Shop Albus Golf
Ocean Golf
Price Range: $34.99 - $280
Values: Zero-Waste
Ocean Golf was the first biodegradable golf ball to contain fish food. These dissolvable golf balls are perfect for playing around water environments, including jetties, lakes, yachts, beaches, rivers, and lakes. Ocean Golf Asia has customers in more than 50 countries, including Seychelles, UAE, Maldives, Ireland, Norway, Vietnam, and the United States.
Their philosophy is sustainability on all levels, from golf to all recycling efforts. Ocean Golf uses 100% recyclable boxes that are made from 95% post-consumer content. Products are manufactured using non-contaminating materials, are certified biodegradable, non-toxic, and include fish food that's available in the core within 48 hours of hitting water. Plus, balls completely biodegrade after 28 days.
Shop Ocean Golf
Biodegradable Golf Balls
Price: $69.99
Values: Zero-Waste
This Canadian company offers best-in-class quality and eco dissolvable golf balls for many markets.
Biodegradable Golf Balls' company mission is to help save the planet from things like the giant garbage patch, a trash "island" the size of Texas in the Pacific Ocean, and to help customers enjoy the great game of golf.
Biodegradable Golf products are made from corn starch and a polyvinyl alcohol coating and are non-toxic and 100% compostable, biodegradable balls. The water-soluble material is also non-mutagenic and non-clastogenic, perfect for amateurs who often lose lots of golf balls in the water due to errant shots.
Shop Biodegradable Golf Balls
Saving the environment is on everyone's mind these days. As the planet gets warmer and more species to start to go extinct, we, too, have to grapple with the consequences of pollution. Being eco-friendly is a state of mind, carried over in conserving water to making decisions on what to buy or not buy.
Fortunately, golf enthusiast companies, like the ones mentioned here, are also catching on. These three brands are all great options to utilize for weekend golfers, corporate parties, or as sustainable gifts. The best part is that we can all still play the game of golf and do our part in saving the planet!
Use our vetted and curated list of GoodStuff-approved stores to discover the best brands to support all aspects of your sustainable lifestyle.
Goodstuff editors only endorse products we love and believe in. If you do end up making a purchase through one of our links, we may earn a commission.
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