Why a California Beach Town Just Banned Balloons

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Celebrations in a beachside California metropolis will quickly need to happen with out an iconic, single-use occasion favor: balloons.

Town council of Laguna Seashore, about 50 miles southeast of Los Angeles, voted Tuesday to ban the sale and use of all forms of balloons, citing their contribution to ocean litter in addition to well being and security dangers from potential fires once they hit energy traces. Beginning in 2024, folks utilizing balloons on public property or at metropolis occasions may incur fines of as much as $500 for every violation. (Balloons used solely inside folks’s residences are exempt from the ban.)

The vote is a part of a rising nationwide motion to limit balloon use, in addition to a broader item-by-item push to limit problematic single-use merchandise like plastic straws and baggage. For now, most balloon-related state and metropolis laws solely targets the intentional launch of helium-filled balloons, however consultants say outright bans are gaining traction as folks higher perceive their environmental penalties. Nantucket, Massachusetts, in 2016 banned any balloon crammed with a fuel that’s lighter than air, and there are related bans in locations like East Hampton, New York, and Solana Seashore and Encinitas, California.

“Plastic within the ocean and setting typically is gaining extra consideration,” Chad Nelsen, chief govt of the nonprofit environmental group Surfrider Basis, advised Grist. “It’s good that individuals are taking a look at these disposable, single-use gadgets that we’ve been utilizing day by day and never desirous about the results.” He stated California seaside cleanups organized by Surfrider in 2022 collected a complete of almost 2,500 balloons.”

Balloons, particularly these crammed with helium, typically turn out to be ocean air pollution after only a few hours of use. These fabricated from latex — a type of comfortable, artificial or pure materials that will take many years to interrupt down — might be mistaken for meals by marine animals and birds. When ingested, latex can conform to birds’ abdomen cavities, inflicting nutrient deficiency or suffocation.

Balloons fabricated from mylar, a type of plastic coated in skinny metallic, principally by no means break down. “They stick round really till the tip of time,” Kara Wiggin, a doctoral researcher on the Scripps Establishment of Oceanography, advised me. The plastic strings hooked up to them can strangle marine life after which chip into microplastics that contaminate ingesting water and the meals chain.

Mylar balloons also can get tangled in energy traces, resulting in energy outages or fires. Based on the town of Riverside, California, balloons prompted greater than 1,300 minutes of energy outages for its publicly owned water and electrical utility in 2021. Different cities and utilities report hundreds of ratepayers shedding energy annually when balloons get caught in energy traces.

Wiggin stated balloons are only a small a part of society’s broader dependancy to single-use gadgets, however that banning them is “low-hanging fruit.” “We don’t throw issues purposefully into the setting, however we regularly try this with balloons,” she advised Grist. “That’s a observe that must be stopped.”

Nelsen stated there are loads of balloon-free methods to maintain the enjoyable going, together with paper-based decorations, streamers, flags, kites, and pinwheels — lots of which might be safely reused dozens of instances. “Let’s discover a strategy to have a good time youngsters’ birthdays with out killing marine life,” he stated.

This text initially appeared in Grist at https://grist.org/cities/heres-why-a-california-beach-town-just-banned-balloons/. Grist is a nonprofit, unbiased media group devoted to telling tales of local weather options and a simply future. Be taught extra at Grist.org