catarby

 It's Just a Baseball

Wrong.

When we look at a baseball you likely never wondered what it took to make it. Well, lets take a look at a simple baseball. An ordinary object, but when you look behind the scenes you see a complicated process from resource collection to shipping that takes a lot out of the environment. Now we will take a look into the "modest" past of said baseball. We will ask, what did it take to make it? What did it take to make the materials? Whats is the assembly process? What is the lifespan of the baseball? And last but not least, what effect does the production have on the environment?

Firstly, what are all the materials used in a baseball? Well the internal structure of a baseball is much more complex than you may expect. In the very center there are two layers of rubber, covering a cork core. Outside this there are three layers of woolen yarn and then one layer of cotton yarn. Believe it or not, there are 1,320 feet of yarn in just ONE baseball. Next, there is a layer of rubber cement to glue on two pieces of cowhide. These two pieces are then stitches together with exactly 108 stitches of red wax coated cotton yarn. Now what effect do you think all of these materials have on the environment?



This is a diagram of the inside of a baseball.

Not only does a baseball have a surprising amount of materials, but the production of these materials take even more energy than the production of the ball itself. Lets start at the core, the cork is harvested from trees that require lots of water and care. The rubber that is put around the cork must be made far away where rubber trees can be grown. Latex is harvested from the trees and rubber is made, then shipped long miles in a plane that uses thousands of gallons of fuel. Then the rubber is heated (more fuel) and formed into the desired shape. Next, the multiple layers of wool yarn required for the filling. First, wool is harvested from sheep which require food, water, deforested land, and pump gases into the air, then cleaned with gallons of water, spun by workers or machines that require maintenance and fuel and shipped to the baseball factory in a vehicle that requires maintenance and fuel. Then there is the cotton yarn used for filling and stitching. In the beginning of the process, cotton is grown on deforested land, and is watered throughout its entire life. It is then picked by either a machine that uses fuels or a worker, and is then shipped to the factory. The shipping again, uses fossil fuels which pollute the air. Along with these materials there is also the cowhide and rubber cement. The cement is made similarly to the core, but has added chemicals (which can also leach into the Earth's water supply) that keep the rubber fluid. The cowhide may be the most costly material, first it is grown. Where might you ask? On a cow of course. A cow who uses water, corn, land, workers, and other resources. You think this sound extreme for just one baseball? Don't even get started on what it takes to make the materials used to make the materials!!

media type="youtube" key="mfPuRoStEdw?fs=1" height="385" width="480" align="center" This is how a baseball is made.

This is a picture of a Vietnamese Rubber Tree

Next, you'll find out how all the materials are assembled to make a baseball. First, rubber cement is coated over the cores, that have been shipped in from another factory, to make the yarn adhere to it. Next, the various layers of yarn are wound around the core using a special machine. After that, another layer of rubber cement is applied to the outside of the yarn. Then the two pieces of cowhide are stuck onto the cement. To continue the progression of the baseball making process the balls are then sewn together by ambidextrous seamstresses. They need to be anpidextrous because the pattern required to sew a baseball requires using both hands at the same time. All the maintenance, oil, and cooling fluid requid for all these massive machines is extremely harmful to the environment.

You would be surprised as to what the lifespan of a major league baseball is. How many pitches does one ball last? A whole game? Not even close; one ball is only used for five to seven pitches and there is an average of 292 pitches per game of baseball. Where do they go after that? Once a baseball has been deemed 'unusable' in a game, it is simply given to a fan, most likely to be put on a shelf, never to be used again, eventually ending up in a landfill. All those materials, resources, gases pumped into the air, for only an average six throws.

media type="youtube" key="i90BQQ9YAzw?fs=1" height="385" width="480" align="center" There are thousands of landfills all over the world and you can bet your noodles that even the tiniest object can have a lot of waste product. media type="custom" key="7968082" align="center" Now where do you think Simon's ball went? Yes, a landfill Simon, and like what was said above, that ball's decomposition can do a lot to the environment.

Now the focus of this project was not to explain the baseball in all its making, but to express how much one little object can effect the environment. Think about all the materials, materials used to make the materials, the machines, maintenance for workers and machines, oil for transportation fuel that goes into one little ball. Now take any other object and do the same thing. You'll find that anything you use, ever, can have a massive effect of the environment. Now add all of the objects you use everyday together, and you'll realize that we are killing our mother Earth. The more luxuriant we live our lives, and the more people we bring into this world, the more planet Earth feel the strain. With the way people live in the United States of America, it would take an average of four Earths to support the human race. Next time you ask for more, more food, a bigger house, more clothes, bigger furniture, more children, think. media type="custom" key="7968276" Thank you for that wonderful excerpt from your movie, An Inconvenient Truth, younger version of Al Gore. Special thanks to the fallowing websites: http://www.voki.com/create.php http://www.google.com/images http://www.oncoursesystems.com/school/webpage.aspx?id=300840&xpage=698915 http://bestanimations.com/ http://www.bing.com/