AIBU to object to balloon and lantern memorial releases for environmental reasons ?

You should spend some time with farmers and horse owners who have lost their beloved animals due to this.

It needs to be banned, I don’t know why it isn’t. It’s so damaging. I have seen a wild bird entangled in balloon string, dead. That is not a good representation of a loved one who has passed. Mad to think that someone’s dead horse is a good way for you to remember someone (although the fact you said you do it at Halloween makes me think you may be fibbing somewhat….)

Paper boats floated down a river.

How selfish and stupid,I hope you can live with yourself with the trauma this causes to animals, cows,sheep,horses eat them and die,they alo flee in panic and get injured. If you saw a photo of the injured animals from your stupid balloons that do not go to heaven would you have no compassion?
Selfish entitlement at its best

I do often think about starting a post like this every time I see someone do it, but then I feel a bit wrong to do so off the back of someone's grief, however I'm in full agreement with you.

I think in part, because I'm not sentimental in that way. Like you said, the balloons don't go to heaven. It's just a huge waste and a danger to wildlife. There have to be better ways to commemorate someone's life.

Wow. Just wow.

Was your lost loved one also a selfish tit who didn’t care about others? If yes, this is a perfect way to remember them. If not then maybe find a way to honour their memory that doesn’t actually dishonour their memory.

I like benches as I like reading the plaques and they are often in rural places where there’s no other place to sit near us. The seafront near my mum is a long row of benches but they are used.

Not doing it is an excellent alternative.

Only total twats/people with very low intelligence/both release balloons and lanterns.

Which culture is this?

Plant a tree? Or a rosebush? Create a little memorial area in your garden? Donate to a charity?
I planted rose trees for my dead daughter and dead brother - had never grown anything in my life before but they're flourishing and I love it when I get a new rose on them.

I actually think that every single person that has ever lost someone should do what@BeSunnyLemonSheep does, and I mean EVERYONE, so all day every day, there will be balloons, lanterns and fireworks at all hours.
I'll even go one step further and have the government help pay for those who can't afford it, because everyone loses someone , after all.

Yes 🤔, I think this would be healthy for society.

I think most that do it don’t realise.

I also think most that do realise and judge do hundreds of bad things for the environment all the time but it’s easy to judge the act you yourself aren’t intrested in doing.

I jave a Burger Burberry coat, but not a cap. I've also never set off a balloon, lantern or otherwise.

There's a family in our village who let off fireworks/balloons/lanterns on an alarmingly regular basis. Sometimes it's celebratory, sometimes linked to bereavement. It's at least 10 times a year. They're rather obsessed with balloons in general actually. Their house is perpetually decorated in hundreds of balloons and accompanying lurid banners, the birthday/anniversary/birth changing accordingly.

People post about it on our village page regularly. Sometimes one of the farmers who's had to pay for treatment of an animal or a pet owner whose dog has been terrified by the fireworks. The response is always the same. Usually "fuck off," a mention of their culture and a commitment to doing it even more.

I despair.

I'm sure that what other posters have suggested is true, i.e. that the reason why some people still do this sort of thing is so that they can video it and upload it to social media.

How many people do things like releasing balloons or releasing Chinese lanterns without taking photos or videos and uploading them to social media? I suspect, none.

Balloon releases make me wince, we know the negative environmental impact of them so I don't know why they still happen.

If it's essential for your grieving to send something into the air for a loved one, have children blow bubbles. Write messages on kites or on ribbons on kites and go to a field or a beach to fly them up high. (and then take the kites home again)

Balloons will pop, the latex gets into waterways, the sea, farmland, hedges, streets, beaches, it is littering and dangerous to wildlife, sealife etc.

We planted a tree for my friend, we shared stories, sang songs, tied a ribbon.

You're not unreasonable at all.

You don’t care about animals ingesting balloons? You don’t care about causing unnecessary suffering and the possible deaths of farm animals or the veterinarian costs incurred by farmers? You don’t care that the balloons can cause power outages if they get caught in power lines or substations? You don’t care about the marine and ecological al damage being done to the land and seas?

There are so many other options as other posters have highlighted that would serve the same purpose but have a positive effect on the environment which wouldn’t inconvenience you and your family.

I don’t get the selfish /don’t give a damn attitude. You are doing this for yourself and using poor dead granny to justify your selfishness. Help me out here, why do you care so little?

That poster probably wants her surviving relatives to go one better and memorialise her with a wildfire.

As for a memorial, I think living & behaving kindly in a way in which they would be proud is the finest of tributes.

There are alternatives. You can release bubbles, scatter flower petals, plant a tree or a plant scatter wild flower seeds.

A wildfire was started near my home recently by a helium balloon. It hit off electricity wires, exploded and started a fire beneath.

I agree OP, it's so mindless and self-indulgent.

Exactly. They’re in your thoughts and memories. They’re always with you. The balloons aren’t needed for that.

Hope so. They should be made to scour the countryside until they've all filled a bag of litter.

for the no alternative brigade, get a tattoo with their name, then they're with you always.