UKC

I didn’t see the programme, but my social media stuff ( mostly full of old school pals and wet leftie environmentalists) lit up last night because the One Show did a piece on environmental plastics followed by a mass balloon release for Take That

ok “ordinary” balloons are latex, pedant fans, but it still takes a long time to degrade, and in the mean time, they are a real threat to marine wildlife. 

But it got me thinking, we have leapt aboard the plastics bandwagon, which is great, but have we really started to do the joined up thinking. What does it take to get the meeja to think beyond a hashtag and a melancholic soundtrack before reverting to business as usual?

I remember a slight sense of irony a long time ago when the Queen celebrated the conversion of her limousine fleet to unleaded petrol by releasing thousands of balloons to mark the event.

And it doesn't really hinge around whether or not they are a threat to wildlife to me; whatever you throw into the air comes down somewhere. If you throw a matchstick or a tab end on the ground in our town you get slapped with a fine. A lot of people consider the council to be over zealous in this but I'm not one of them.

I remember as a small child arguing with my mum that I didn't want to take part in a balloon race as it was just litter. 

Can't believe that 30 years later they are still legal

The Chinese lanterns we see so much of these days are even better - litter AND the added bonus of maybe setting fire to something in the middle distance.

I went to a wedding of two environmentalists.. and they celebrated by a mass release of chinese lanterns..

An episode of Escape to the Country last night had a couple looking for a barn conversion, who were keen wildlife enthusiasts. I wonder if it crossed their minds that their property choice is a contributing factor in the decline of barn owl populations?

Twas a lovely house though. They didn't buy it in the end, but I did think it was quite ironic.

Featherbed moss /Ashop Edge/ kinder are good places to find shrivelled helium balloons as I think the Manchester ones run out of lift just around the Snake Pass summit and end up littering the moor there. 

And also choking livestock to death. Next time a proponent of "biodegradable" sky lanterns tries to tell you it's safe for animals to eat, arrange to see him two days later after its been soaked in water then shove it down his throat.

And wasting helium, a valuable and limited resource.

There's one in a tree, frustratingly close but just out of reach up my road just outside Hayfield. It's a right eyesore, and only a few metres from a barn owl nest site. One day I'll cart the ladders up there!

I get irritated every time I see a balloon seller with a huge bunch of those foil helium balloons. Not only is helium finite, and impossible to replace (being an element, and also making it's way into space...) but we desperately need it to fill MRI machines, to cool scientific instruments (NMR etc), amongst other medical or research applications. And to add insult to injury the balloons themselves are made of an non-recyclable, environmentally-persistent composite material. Oh and as discussed a lot of them never even make it to a bin because they're let go of so they end up littering the countryside. It's difficult to explain to people that they're not harmless fun...!

It's practically impossible - who would be 'evil' enough to deny people balloons? But in saying that, the word needs to get out. It's quite shocking just how much of our 'modern' lifestyle is built on non-renewable resources.

Rubber balloons which pop and are put in the bin are one thing; the worst they do is add to landfill.

Balloons which float away and land elsewhere are litter, and people who release them should be made aware of that.

I can imagine how indignant they would be if you told them that they were guilty of littering. I see exactly the same reaction when people are given a fine for dropping a cigarette end in our town centre: £200 fine, £120 costs, £20 victim surcharge.

Maybe helium balloons and skylanterns should be the next area of interest for the litter police.

Of course, the whole thing could be simplified by legislation about selling the things in the first place.

While I'm wearing the fun-police hat, I think fireworks should be banned for sale to the general public. The amount of waste generated for some pretty colours and loud bangs, is extreme. The metal salts that are burnt are often rare, and extracting them means gigantic mines in third world countries. They are in some sense non-renewable for the extraction energy we pay (e.g. it would cost a lot more to extract them from seawater, which would be renewable). Plus there is huge emotional distress caused to wildlife and pets in populated areas, plus fire damage to buildings and property. We have other ways of making pretty colours and loud bangs, and home events are never as impressive as public shows anyway. I think people want fire and brimstone - then light a bonfire and burn some wood. /rant.