Creek Walking

By Sarah Minick

07/08/2008

Last week my husband Jim came home from his daily hike with the remains of a colorful Mylar(r) balloon. "Wonder how far this traveled?" he mused as he pulled pink and purple fragments out of his pocket.

Though we live two miles from a paved road and twenty from the nearest town, we are not isolated from the scattered remains of balloon trash. Over the years, our remote and beautiful property has often become the landing strip and dumping ground for deflated balloons. These weightless celebrations of color have the power to travel great distances, litter our environment, and cause death to many creatures. But it doesn't have to be this way.

When a helium-filled, latex balloon is released, it can quickly rise to 28,000 feet, where the minus 40 degree temperature causes the balloon to freeze. The latex then shatters, sending the fragments falling back to earth, reports the Michigan company, Balloons Galore. The distance these shredded pieces travel depends on wind speeds and directions, and since we live downwind from several major cities, our trees act like a comb raking the sky clean of this balloon debris.

The National Association of Balloon Artists and Suppliers explains that latex balloons are "completely biodegradable" since they are created from "the coagulated and dried sap of the Hevea tree (rubber tree) with the addition of a tiny amount of non-toxic coloring." They can breakdown in both sunlight and water, though when submerged in water, decomposition takes longer. In fact latex balloons have been found to biodegrade at about the same rate as an oak leaf. But this requires exposure to sunlight. Who knows how long a "completely biodegradable" latex balloon takes to disappear in the depths of a landfill, but if we use balloons, latex is our best choice.

In contrast, shiny Mylar(r) balloons do not biodegrade or shatter at high altitudes. These are the colorful metalized inflatables that often have messages printed on them. Balloons Galore states that Mylar(r) balloons are made with a material developed for use with the U.S. Space program. The company explains that these shiny balloons "are not classified as bio-degradable and should not be released." Since they hold helium longer than latex, they travel much farther before deflating. And because they don't break down, they pollute our land and water for centuries.

Both balloons and their attached strings can harm many animals. Whales, turtles, and dolphins are especially at risk. These creatures think the balloons are edible jellyfish, so they swallow the foreign material and then die slow, painful deaths by starvation because the balloons block their digestive tracts. Likewise, birds and other animals become entangled in balloon strings and die. In 2003, the Ocean Conservancy reported that over 80% of animal entanglements in the U.S. involved plastic of some form. According to Clean Ocean Action, when Hurricane Isabel swept onto the New Jersey shore in 2003, it dumped over 478 balloons on 1.5 miles, and most of these had plastic strings attached. The printed messages on these balloons revealed they had traveled from such places as New York, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania.

Ironically, not long ago our local newspaper proudly showed kindergarteners celebrating the 100th day of school by releasing balloons into the vibrant blue sky. This one school has six kindergarten classes. If each class has 20 students, then 120 balloons were released that day, causing the five-year-olds to become unwitting polluters of the very environment they're taught to love.

How could those kindergarteners have celebrated the 100th day of school in a way that respects our environment? What should anyone do who loves both the colorful celebrations of balloons and this very large balloon of an earth? Obviously, these teachers could have chosen not to use balloons at all. But most Americans are unwilling to shun these festive orbs at birthday parties and baby showers.

One day I hope we will explain to our children why our celebrations don't have any colorful balloons. But until then, we can improve our use of the brightly colored globes by choosing latex instead of Mylar(r), properly disposing of all balloons and their attached ribbons, and not releasing any of these celebrations into the heavens only to have them come down into someone else's backyard or in the ocean to kill a turtle, dolphin or whale. These weighty matters are important lessons to teach any kindergartener, or adult, within the first 100 days of school.