[Environmental] 99 Red Balloons? No thank you.

So, I wanted to write a blog post on why people should ban balloons...but I didn't want to do so without some numbers to throw out. This had been an interesting venture...I find a lot of pages saying why people shouldn't ban balloons, and few giving reasons for the opposite.

Balloons end up as garbage, litter. They can become ingested by animals mistaking it for food, or just plain by mistake. Some smaller critters can even become entangled in discarded balloons and die.

I've read that latex balloons, though made of natural ingredients, can take up to four or six (I've read both) to decompose. That's a long time to leave something out for a poor animal to eat and choke on, or be unable to digest and wind up with some deadly digestion issues.

Releasing balloons is just incredibly irresponsible. You may as well just pop it and throw it on the ground, there's really no difference.

While I don't have kids yet, my household will have a ban on balloons. They are a pointless, useless form of mild entertainment and decoration, and the world would be better off without them. I will never buy my child a balloon, and encourage others to do so. Spend the money some something equally as entertaining, and something that can be re-used and treasured. Not something that will last maybe half a day, and end up in the garbage. Do the environment a favor, and save the latex for something more worthwhile, like birth control.

~Jenicsaco