Dear “Earth Talk”: Why is it bad for the
environment to release balloons into the air?
— George Young, New York
Given that what goes up must come down, balloons
released into the air — whether by accident or in large quantities at
events — eventually end up as trash on the ground or in bodies of
water. In addition — and as any wildlife or marine-mammal protection
organization will tell you — spent balloons are dangerous to animals,
which often get tangled up in the attached ribbons or strings or mistake
balloons for prey and ingest them, wreaking havoc on their digestive
tracts.
Indeed, according to the nonprofit organization Clean
Virginia Waterways, floating balloons — which may look like delicious
jellyfish to unsuspecting sea creatures — are responsible for the
deaths of thousands of sea turtles, dolphins, fish and seabirds, many whose
populations are already endangered as a result of other manmade threats.
Consumers and event planners should not be misled by
industry groups who maintain that balloons pose no environmental threat
because they are constructed of biodegradable latex. Even though most latex
is biodegradable, it takes at least six months to break down in the
environment, and only when exposed to sun or water. So says the Balloon
Council, a trade group of balloon makers that otherwise encourages balloon
releases and dismisses arguments that balloons are either polluting or
injurious to wildlife. Meanwhile, Mylar balloons, though less common than
their latex counterparts, are not biodegradable and can be toxic in their
own right when ingested by wildlife.
It’s interesting that the Balloon Council labels
as “misinformation” claims that wildlife can be injured by
ingesting balloons yet duly warns on its Web site that young children under
the age of 8 “may choke or suffocate on uninflated or broken
balloons.”
According to the Michigan Environmental Council, which
coordinated one recent beach-cleanup event during which volunteers picked
up more than 4,500 discarded balloons along the shores of Lake Michigan,
the solution to the problem is simple: “Don’t participate in
balloon releases, don’t use balloons as decorations during outside
events, and, when you hear of a balloon release being organized, inform the
organizers that what they are doing is littering.”
Mass release of balloons is illegal in several U.S.
states, including Connecticut, Florida, Tennessee, California, and
Virginia, and similar legislation is pending in Massachusetts, Maryland,
New York, and some municipalities. Meanwhile, Great Britain’s Marine
Conservation Society has kicked off a campaign to educate the public about
the dangers of balloon releases. The group is asking corporate and
government event planners in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to sign its
Voluntary Ban on Balloon Releases.
For more information: Clean Virginia Waterways,
www.longwood.edu/cleanva/; Michigan Environmental Council,
www.mecprotects.org; Balloon Council, www.balloonhq.com/BalloonCouncil/;
Marine Conservation Society, www.mcsuk.org.
Send questions to “Earth Talk” in care of E/The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881, or e-mail earthtalk@emagazine.com.
This article appears in Jul 14-20, 2005.
