Burst the Balloon!

Remember the last time you had a birthday party for your little one? What was the theme for the party? Rainbows, unicorns, a favourite cartoon character? What was the first idea for decoration that you thought of? Balloons? They’re fun, they’re festive, they’re colourful and so so fun! A big vibrant balloon arch over the entrance and a lot of balloons tied around the party venue? This is most of us. Its the easiest, most effective and most cost-efficient decoration one can do today for a party – whether it’s a birthday party, a baby shower, a bridal shower or even a fun wedding event, like a bachelor / bachelorette party. No party seems complete without balloons. 

Do we feel a slight bit of guilt when we choose to use 2000 balloons at an event? Maybe. We’re constantly being bombarded with media and dialogue these days about sustainability and low carbon footprint and being kind to the planet. But it’s not easy to just change our lives overnight. And the children love it so much. Just seeing the joy on their faces as they chase a balloon flying in the wind is enough to dismiss all doubt. I myself have been guilty of this for years on end. And also, does one event thrown by one person really harm the planet that much? It’s only once a year. But the hard reality is that its not only one event thrown by one person once a year. Its multiple events thrown by multiple people, multiple times a day even. Approximately 4 million ballooons are produced in a day worldwide, giving you as estimate of how many balloons are used in a single day! 

Now, every time a balloon is released into the atmosphere, it returns to earth and ends up as litter, polluting the planet and potentially harming wildlife. The NY Times reports that, according to the Entanglement Network, over 100,000 marine mammals die each year from plastic entanglement or ingestion. When a balloon has popped, it often forms a shriveled-up shape that mimic’s a jellyfish. On average, over 100 million marine animals are killed per year due to eating plastic debris, either by mistaking it for prey (jellyfish) or by getting caught in it. A study performed in the Gulf of Mexico by the University of Texas Marine Science Institute concluded that 5 percent of the dead sea turtles had ingested latex (balloons). Although latex, in its natural state, is extremely biodegradable, in its processed commercial state latex is not biodegradable at all. Ordinary latex balloons will not start to degrade for about five months in the ocean, and shiny Mylar balloons last for years. WWF-Australia estimates that polyurethane balloons take about 450 years to decompose. 

These are scary thoughts. 

What can we do instead? Can we really change the way we celebrate events? 

Do we want to? 

Think fabric decoration. All reusable. All made from fabric waste. Colourful. Vibrant. Abundant. Sustainable. 

Nothing goes to the landfill and nothing gets thrown after one event. 

Can we really do it? Will our children miss the balloons or will this just become a normal part of their events like balloons did? Let’s take a moment today to think about it…