PARIS — Between the Euro soccer tournament in Germany and the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris, the ball, in all its forms, will be the focus of summer 2024.
A unifying object par excellence, it is the symbol of the universal language of sport: take two kids born on opposite sides of the world, place a ball between them, and you can bet they’ll start exchanging passes by hand or foot, ignoring all cultural differences. But behind the optimistic rhetoric favored by official sports bodies, the ball hides a darker reality: that of its environmental impact.
This is what Simon Mutschler discovered about 15 years ago. In his early 20s, this avid soccer fan wondered about the ball’s austere design. “A friend and I couldn’t understand why there were no graphics, at a time when design was becoming increasingly important in consumer goods,” he recalls.
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Mutschler began serious market research into soccer balls, the most widely used in the world. His quest took him as far as Punjab, India, which until the 2010s and the arrival of China on the market, was the world’s main soccer ball-producing region, with proven know-how dating back to the English colonial period.
Mutschler discovered, beneath its apparent simplicity, the technical nature of this sphere that unleashes so many passions. But above all, he learns about its appalling composition: there’s not an ounce of leather left in a soccer ball, nostalgic fans be damned.
“The outer layer is made of PVC or PU, two petrochemical products. As for the foam layer underneath, it depends on the workshop, but it’s made from fossil materials, as is the third layer, the interlining,” explains the now 30-year-old. “Only the bladder used for inflation is sometimes made of rubber.”
In short, the soccer ball is nothing but a pile of plastic.
Balls made of wheat residues
While sources differ, the few figures available give an idea of the stakes, which are not insignificant given the popularity of the accessory. The Vista brand claims that balls generate 27,000 tonnes of waste worldwide every year. While, according to calculations by the Ufolep sports federation or the French Agency for Ecological Transition (Ademe), each sphere could emit between 2 and 7 kg of CO2 — even though the finished product weighs around 450 grams.
In France, Mutschler estimates that amateur clubs alone (around 15,000) use a million of them every year, not counting the balls used by professional leagues or purchased by private individuals. The interweaving of multiple layers of material makes recycling impossible.
And the absence of national or European regulations on this object makes certain abuses possible. Those include the documented presence of endocrine disruptors, such as phthalates, in certain inks adorning the balls, with which thousands or even millions of children are regularly in contact.
“The whole thing is fully recyclable, and the materials can be used again in the manufacture of a new ball.”
Everything had to be redesigned. After a decade of research and various positions in the ball industry, Mutschler took the plunge and founded Rebond in 2019. The goal is simple: to manufacture a ball that is single-material, therefore recyclable, made from sustainable materials and meeting FIFA’s technical requirements.
And after several years of research and development, Mutschler’s gamble is about to pay off. “The casing, foam and interfacing are made from a single material, 84% biosourced plastic derived from soy or wheat crop residues,” he explained, “The bladder is made from natural rubber and is easy to remove. The whole thing is fully recyclable, and the materials can be used again in the manufacture of a new ball.”
The product complies with FIFA specifications, after a merciless passage through the “shooting room” where the ball is studied from every angle after having been used to take no less than 2,000 shots.
Made in France and India
Based in the city of Nantes, Rebond has set up an ecosystem straddling two countries, France and India. The biosourced raw material is produced in France, where a production workshop is also located in a shoe factory in the Loire-Atlantique department. Two other sites are located in Punjab.
“The two countries complement each other,” Mutscher says. The Punjabi workshops bring us their know-how in ball manufacturing, and the French sites bring their R&D expertise in alternative materials. It’s a win-win situation.”
To promote its brand, Rebond launched an ambitious initiative at the end of 2022, offering balloons designed by several artists to some 20 professional clubs, including Paris Saint-Germain, Olympique Lyonnais, Olympique de Marseille, FC Nantes and Montpellier Hérault Sport Club. This should enable the company to sell several tens of thousands of delicately decorated spheres, and ensure its first profitable year in 2023, with sales of 250,000 euros.
The brand’s first official success came when it became the ball supplier, until 2025, for the Tournoi de Montaigu, the Under-17 World Cup. And it succeeded in attracting French former professional soccer player Djibril Cissé to its fold. All it has to do now is move on to industrialization and large-scale marketing.
It’s basketball’s and rugby’s turn now
To achieve this, Rebond is currently preparing to raise 450,000 euros, with several goals in mind.
“We want to finalize the recycling circuit by recovering the material from our balls to make new ones, we want to sign contracts with major buying groups so that our products can be widely distributed, and we want to obtain the FIFA license for our balls so that they can be used in official competitions,” Mutscher says.
The first target is France’s 15,000 amateur clubs, some 20 of which have already signed a contract with the brand. With a ball costing 24 euros (.75), Rebond is already aiming to be competitive. “We sent out a questionnaire to clubs, and 400 of them told us they had a budget of around 25 euros per ball,” Mutscher says.
“Rugby balls and basketballs also use petrochemical ingredients.”
The company is also setting up a collection circuit so that, at the end of each season, its products can be collected and sent for recycling. Individuals can return used balls to Rebond in exchange for a 10% discount voucher on their next order.
And the brand has no intention of stopping there. It is now tackling rugby and basketballs. “Until now, we’ve concentrated on soccer balls, because they’re the most technical accessories and contain the most petrochemical materials,” Mutscher says, but “Rugby balls and basketballs are made from more bio-sourced materials, with more rubber in particular, although they also use petrochemical ingredients.”
Maybe they, too, will soon end up in the recycling bin?
