FUCKING CHINESE LANTERNS!!

[ANoiseAnnoys]

Am posting this in AIBU as I want more people to see it.

I have gone downstairs this morning to find a Chinese lantern stuck in a small tree in my garden! I’m fuming (and I’m usually not an angry person).

Are people so thick?

It could’ve set my house on fire. It could’ve harmed a bird/animal. It’s basically sending litter into the air.

Not to mention the irony of the fact it’s (likely) been set off to “thank” the NHS during the covid crisis - and I’ve just had to don gloves to go and pick up and discard the bloody thing!

Why aren’t people getting the message about the danger of these things?
And what can I do on a personal level, is there a petition I can sign?

I’m in cheshire northeast btw so if you are in my area and set one off last night (it was pink btw)...”YOU ARE AN IDIOT! USE YOUR BRAIN!!”

Rant over.

www.change.org/p/ban-sky-lanterns-beautiful-but-dangerous?recruiter=67112983&utm_source=share_petition&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial&utm_medium=whatsapp&utm_content=washarecopy_10478963_en-GB%3Av7&recruited_by_id=820e8183-4979-4f27-9aee-9b34b912b396

rubbish at links, must skill up one day

It hasn't rained here for two weeks. The whole county is potential kindling

Wasnt there some bonkers light show meant to happen a few years back? Think around the time the Moores were on fire..luckily it got cancelled but how silly can you get?! Let's add to the flames...

I'm glad a few councils have banned them but the rest ideally should follow. They dont do anything worth while. Except cause so much risk

Completely agree - the fire service have sent out another message today requesting that people do not use these. I'm taken aback by what some think is a way to support the NHS - last week near us someone let off fireworks and another fired a gun ........

I honestly thought these had been banned a few years ago.

Anyway, YANBU, you'd have to be an utter tit to think it was a good idea to do this, particularly now.

Someone I know nearly lost their static caravan to one a few years back.Another owner had stupidly let one off and it didn't even take off properly and landed on their ratten furniture on their decking.Thankfully they were in the kitchen and rushed out with a pan of water before it took hold.

Had to stamp one out that had blown into a petrol station once! Where do people think they go? Just disappear into the sky??

They should be banned. As should balloon releases

I’m not one for petitions but I’d sign one to help get these banned.

They should be banned along with balloon releases. My family decided to do one recently as we lost a very close relative and probably 100 balloons released, I didn’t go because I just can’t stand the impact on the environment.

I'm so glad some of you have also mentioned balloon releases as well.

In a former Mumsnet life I shared my opinion on them and was promptly jumped on, along with other posters of the same view, for policing grief, being unsympathetic.

Personally I don't see why using up a precious resource to send rubbish into the sky is considered a positive memorial anyway.

YANBU, they're terrible for the environment.
But... I wish people wouldn't call them Chinese lanterns. I'm from hong kong and never seen them there, only ever in other countries.

Ps we have Mid Autumn festival where we light lanterns but always the handheld kind. I call those lanterns you're talking about "flying lanterns"

I was reading a post somewhere about balloons being let off in memory of a small child. I so wanted to suggest that they blew bubbles instead, but chickened out in the end and didn't comment. I should have found a tactful way to say it.