New York City recycling facilities receive 1,200 bowling balls each year

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Originally published at: New York City recycling facilities receive 1,200 bowling balls each year | Boing Boing

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20 years later, no-one is bowling alone anymore.

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My dreams of being a pro bowler died around the same time as my dreams of being a big star on the polka circuit.

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Wow, interesting study.
I was just thinking about how there aren’t any more seedy, smoke filled bowling alleys of my youth any more. Our elementary school used to give a bowling pass at summer break so a buddy and I used to go almost every day. I never considered them bastions of civic engagement, but 5th grade me was just there to screw around.

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It’s not clear who exactly is throwing out all these bowling balls.

I know the answer, but have been sworn to secrecy, so alas I can not tell.

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they should use them to make walls somewhere. i’ve seen gardens that use them as edging, too.

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Yeah, I was thinking they’d make a nice artificial reef.

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I dunno about the balls, but the old pins make great targets. There are pin shooting matches where you have to compete to knock 5 pins off of a table the fastest.

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https://i.gifer.com/ltz.gif(image larger than 4096KB)

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Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

I kind of feel like they should be separating these and seeing if they can be refurbished for reuse elsewhere.

It would be really nice if they had some kind of organized Salvage pickup which would let people put out things that they no longer need but feel can probably be salvaged. I mean, worst case scenario, it ends up in a landfill, which is where most recycling and trash goes anyway…

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Some are hard to recycle.

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Two words: trebuchet ammo.

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What happens when the recycling workers bowl a strike?

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I’ll take 'em. As a side note, I’m currently looking for investors for my great new business idea: The World’s Worst Ball Pit.

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Twice a year my city has a curbside giveaway weekend. If it is on the curb, it is fair game for anyone to take. It is hugely popular; the city turns into a free garage sale for the weekend.

There’s also “Buy Nothing” groups (https://buynothingproject.org/). These tend to be local neighbourhood specific. You just post whatever you’re getting rid of, and interested people can come and pick it up.

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I’m going to need a lot more funding for my next Burning Man installation…

http://isaac.exploratorium.edu/~pauld/activities/astronomy/gravitywell.html

… plus the lighting rigs are going to cost more, now that solar panels, batteries, generators and copper wiring cost more.

At least Burning Man used to not be too rigorous about liability insurance.

ETA:

Heh.

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No one thought of leaving them in the bowling alley parking lot?

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