To ask everyone to stop releasing balloons

[Nixandwotsit]

Why - just why - are crowds of people still thinking that it's a good idea to mourn a death or celebrate an occasion by releasing 100's of fucking balloons into the sky? They land, animals get tangled in them, sometimes they eat them or the ribbons, then some of them die. The balloons don't just vanish like magic fairy dust, they lay around for years littering the countryside.
Am I being unreasonable to ask everyone to just think for a few minutes and stop doing this? And don't even get me started on those lethal bloody chinese lanterns.

You don't get that round here much I've never been at anything it's happened or seen a load of balloons drifting about.

Sometimes have seen about 50 hot air balloons in all sorts of Shadows wafting past but that's different and awesome!

So who has voted YABU and could they please explain why? Or if it was a mistake... you are allowed to change your vote.

Litter on a string. I'm forever picking them out if fields to stop livestock eating them. Horrid.

I hate it. I used to work at a nursery who did this every year with pink and white balloons to commemorate a little girl who used to attend and sadly died. I suggested we change it up and plant a pink and white flowerbed as the nursery had huge outdoor space, and make a small ‘child’s name’ garden, so ‘Jane’s garden’ for example.

The suggestion was treated badly, the manager got really nasty about it although I tried to explain I thought it was lovely to commemorate the girl and I wasn’t being unkind. I believe they are still doing it, or at least they were about two years ago as a friend of mine said she had seen the balloons go up.

I'll come back and haunt anyone who commemorates me with a balloon release.

The saddest thing being this nursery was very close to farmland which we took the children to visit regularly to look at the cows and horses, so the balloons were especially unsafe. Same with those plastic bag lanterns people let off.

Agree.

I will write to my MP, may I suggest everybody does the same

There was a petition against chinese lanterns wasn't there? Didn't work.

@BahHumbygge

Also, all the helium they use is a finite resource... the more helium that is wasted in balloons, the less there is available for medical uses like MRI scanners.

I keep seeing this argument but I’m sure I also read that the helium they use in balloons is a different kind to MRI machines and would in fact be no good in them anyway

Why it hadn’t been banned by councils and the government I have no idea. Chinese lanterns are awful. But, I go a little further and feel that fireworks - at least for private sale- should also be banned for the same reason…

@clickychicky

I don't know if any one does this anymore?

Oh they do...

Logan Mwangi: Balloons tribute to boy found dead in river www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-58128725

Oh I don’t know. I presumed the lanterns were still allowed as I’ve seen people setting them off at the beach near me.

@ChardonnaysPetDragon

Agree.

I will write to my MP, may I suggest everybody does the same

Do you need to?

Better check first that your local council doesn't already have penalties in place.

Mine does.

Aren't those ones paper?

Why aren’t Police arresting these people for litter offences because bottom line is that is what they are doing

I went to a festival in 2009 and they released 100s of Chinese lanterns over farmland, I shudder when I think about it now.

they give me the rage (as do balloons) - i live close to the German zoo that was badly affected a couple of years ago by idiots releasing Chinese lanterns.

I am now very vocal about balloons and Chinese lanterns and I don't care why they are releasing them.

@AntiFlag

Why it hadn’t been banned by councils and the government I have no idea. Chinese lanterns are awful. But, I go a little further and feel that fireworks - at least for private sale- should also be banned for the same reason…

They've been banned by loads of councils.

There are lots of places that allow you to plant trees in memory of loved ones. Check where you live. A quick google shows The Heart of England Forest allow that. A lovely way to remember a loved one.

@user1471505494

Why aren’t Police arresting these people for litter offences because bottom line is that is what they are doing

No-one (to my knowledge) gets arrested for littering.

They do get fined though.

Sorry Chinese ones.

Paper and I bit of fuel to burn.

That's totally different surely to plastic helium balloons. They also often have metallic coatings.

I agree. Not just the litter but the waste of Helium is criminal. It's finite and we need it for medicine!! Do people not realise the crazy implications of us run in out of Helium?

Do you need to?

Better check first that your local council doesn't already have penalties in place.

Mine does.

Well, I bloody well want not only my council to have restrictions, I want a nationwide ban.

I've never seen Chinese lanterns either.

I always imagine they're lovely to see. Ah well.

We just have fireworks going off all year round.

Trees for Life (The Scottish Highlands) do it too. There are loads if you look.