.png)
2 hours ago
7
I was pleased to read your article on the detrimental effects of balloons on the environment (The dark side of the balloon boom – is it time they were banned?, 2 April). I attend a yoga class on the first floor of a building in Chiswick, London, and I have been repeatedly disturbed by the sight of a helium balloon caught in a tree outside the window there.
Over the last 10 years, I have watched it metamorphose from a silvery helium balloon with a string into a grey, stringy mess that still hasn’t disappeared. Each time I see it, I despair that people still insist on so often buying balloons for celebrations without concern for the environmental impact that they will have once discarded.
Beatrix Chappell
London
It’s good to see the environmental harm of balloon releases getting coverage, though it’s jarring that the article centres on someone in the business of selling balloons.
Parents are increasingly done with the waste, clutter and expense of children’s parties. There’s a real appetite to return to old-school simplicity – a good run around, a slice of cake, maybe a balloon or two to bat across the room. The appetite is there; what’s needed is cultural permission to opt out.
Yes, let’s ban balloon releases, but let’s also rediscover what makes a celebration actually joyful – and that doesn’t involve a 6ft balloon arch or a plastic-filled party bag.
Charlotte Mason-Curl
Founder, The Kids Party Pact
I definitely agree that balloons should be banned. Despite being 10 miles from the nearest town, I find balloons on our farm on a near-daily basis, and have to untangle them from fences and trees. Others lie almost hidden in the long grass – deferred grazing – that is our belted galloways’ source of food.
I pick up and remove every balloon I find, sometimes posting about it on social media and calling for balloons to be banned, but I cannot do this every day as it would become boring to keep calling for change.
Thank you for drawing attention to this issue. Not only are the balloons litter that I have to remove from our farm; they also pose a significant health risk to cattle if they are eaten.
Andrea Meanwell
Tebay, Cumbria
I live on the family farm in the midwest. As a child it was a small dairy and chicken operation amounting to a bit less than 100 acres. For the last 20 years, it has been inundated with deflated balloons. I routinely find them caught in trees, shrubs and in open fields. Not only is it a pain to retrieve the remnants, I often have to wade through underbrush, standing water etc. I also have to dismount from farm equipment to get the damn things. As the article points out, they’re not only unsightly, they’re harmful to wildlife.
Chuck Wisman
Stockbridge, Michigan, US
No Balloon Release Australia has been campaigning for nearly 10 years for a national ban on releasing balloons and for national regulation of the sale of helium so it cannot be used to inflate balloons, to stop balloon releases at the source. We very much appreciated your article.
There are now bans on releasing balloons in most Australian states and we are edging closer to a national ban. However, we know that in jurisdictions with balloon release bans, the practice still occurs. People are either ignorant of the law, or just don’t care, knowing that it is very unlikely that any enforcement will occur, especially if the release was for a lost loved one.
There are other reasons for regulating the sale of helium, and with the Iran war limiting exports of helium from Qatar, even more reason to conserve this precious gas that is vital for medicine, industry and science.
Karen Joynes
No Balloon Release Australia
