Think Before You Let Go: the Dangers of Releasing Balloons

I was asked by Emma Websdale, creator of "Rants for Change", if I wanted to film a 2 minute rant on a subject I am passionate about and want to see change in. Now, there are a whole host of areas that I would very much like to see changes made in so it took me some time to decide which one to focus on but in the end, I went with helium balloon releases. You can watch the video below but there is a whole lot more I have to say on this subject, so do please read on!

Unbelievably, releasing balloons is not currently classed as littering because they're not being directly dropped on to the ground. That to me sounds like the most ridiculous piece of legislation, as if whoever passed it forgot that such a thing as gravity exists on our planet and, as the old saying goes, "what goes up must come down". The Marine Conservation Society is one of the organisations working hard to get this changed and to ban all intentional releases of balloons and paper lanterns in the UK. I think there is a lot of ignorance surrounding this issue, particularly when it comes to the biodegradable aspect.

A quick Google search for biodegradable balloons brings up producers claiming that their latex balloons are 100% natural and will break down within six months or "as fast as an oak leaf in your back yard". Six months is a long time and leaves a huge window of opportunity open for wildlife to consume the latex debris. Just because the balloons explode into tiny particles at a particular altitude does NOT mean they instantly become harmless to animals. Those particles, however small, have to land somewhere and wherever that is, there will be some form of living creature drawn to the colours of the pieces and tricked into consuming them.

It's a sensitive subject when the occasion being marked with balloons or lanterns is the passing of a loved one. Understandably, families and friends want to do something special and memorable to say goodbye to the deceased but is the best way to do that really by organising a mass-littering event? When it comes down to it, that's all a balloon release is. Just because the objects are going up instead of down doesn't change the outcome. As I say in my video, people may as well dump a whole load of plastic on the ground and walk away because that's where the balloon debris will end up eventually, a tempting yet deadly meal for some unsuspecting animal. I'm certain no loved on of my mine would want to be remembered in this way.

A balloon release marking the vicitims of Shoreham air crash in August www.itv.com 

Perhaps grieving communities could be partially forgiven. However, huge corporations can in no way be pardoned. ITV's popular talent show The X Factor is one such example of a company that should know better. To mark the first episode of this year's series back in August, the show televised a mass-release of red balloons. I actually haven't watched the show for a couple of years but I just happened to catch a clip of this balloon release online and thought it was a new thing they did this year. After some more searching, I came across the below clip posted on YouTube which was filmed at the Birmingham auditions two years ago, suggesting that hundreds of balloons are being let loose by the X Factor team in each of the audition cities every year. That equates to thousands of balloons. 

 

Around 7.6 million people watched the opening episode this year and a huge percentage of viewers are teenagers and young adults who follow along with the events of the show eagerly each year. In my mind, the ITV and show's producers are are extremely irresponsible to give off the impression releasing balloons like this is acceptable. They should be showing consideration for the environment and setting an example, not completely disregarding the science that categorically states any form of litter poses an enormous risk to the natural world.

So let's talk about what those risks actually are. As I mentioned earlier, a latex balloon takes six months to biodegrade. That gives wildlife around 180 days to eat the fragments that drop to the ground. Plenty of time to do plenty of damage. Obviously plastic and latex contain absolutely no nutritional value for animals, so the energy they expend consuming the materials is wasted. Some animals don't even get as far as swallowing the remnants; instead, they get pieces tangled around their mouths and beaks, preventing them from eating anything at all and resulting in them starving to death, a truly horrific way to die. 

The ribbons are just as bad as the balloons themselves as these can get wrapped around feet, rendering the animal helpless, and often they struggle so much to get free that the ribbon eventually cuts into their skin, giving them nasty wounds that can lead to limbs becoming partially or wholly detached.  Balloons don't only have an effect on the terrestrial environment. Those fragments that don't land on the ground end up in the ocean where marine mammals, such as seals and turtles, and seabirds will eat them. It is estimated that 90% of seabirds have plastic in their stomachs. That kind of statistic is sickening and shows just how much of an impact we humans have on wildlife.

www.balloonsblow.org

I am grateful that, so far, I haven't come across any injured or dead animals during my beach clean ups. That being said, I have picked up countless pieces of balloon and ribbons from Worthing beach and I have wondered what damage the missing pieces have done elsewhere. These occurrences are 100% preventable if the people responsible for organising releases put an end to any future events. There are many other ways to mark special occasions or to show you are thinking of a loved one, without causing any damage to the natural world. 

Many councils across the UK have already banned balloon and paper lantern releases on their land. However, there are still many, many more that have yet to do so. Click this link to see if your council has already banned the release of balloons and lanterns and if they haven't, get in touch with them, via Twitter, Facebook or email, to ask them why and persuade them to reconsider. My council isn't on there, so I intend to get in touch and voice my opinion. I hope you will do the same. 

Great British Beach Clean in Goring

There have got to be worse ways to spend a Saturday than strolling along a beach in the blazing sunshine while looking after the environment at the same time. For me, it doesn't get any better. Today was my beach clean up event for the MCS Great British Beach Clean weekend. I have held two other clean ups at this beach this year and I was fortunate enough to have fantastic teams of volunteers for both. Today's team was no exception!

In total, there were 25 of us scanning the length of the survey area, including five under-18s. I'm always extremely pleased to have young people taking part in these cleans, particularly when I see that they are enjoying themselves. Getting children and teenagers interested in their environment is absolutely vital and events like these are a brilliant way to make learning about nature into something fun and engaging. Of course, I love to have volunteers of all ages taking part! I spoke to several of the adults helping me today who all expressed amazement at what gets washed up on the shores and dropped by the public. It fills me with hope whenever I come across people who care as much as I do about looking after our planet.

As there were so many of us, it didn't take us long to cover the 100m survey area. Much like the clean I did back in June, there wasn't a massive amount of litter to be collected, not in terms of weight anyway. Generally, Goring-by-Sea is a pretty clean beach from first glance but once you really start looking closely at the pebbles and in between the groynes, all of the small pieces of twine, fishing line and plastic start appearing. One of the teams recorded a large piece of carpet, which we were all hoping had not been used for disposing of anything untoward! The same team also found a large, plastic receptacle that looks as if it was used as a marker buoy. I picked up my first shoe; it was a Croc, so no great loss there! (Please don't take offense if you're a Croc-wearer! Each to their own...)

The last time I was down at Worthing, I nearly got blown off my feet by the strength of the breeze so I came prepared today with my rain mac. I would have been better off dressed in a swimming costume I think, so I could have had a quick dip in the sea to cool off! It was absolutely roasting today and there was quite literally not a breath of wind. I'm certainly not complaining but it was most unexpected, especially after the lack of summer we've just had. 

Several of my volunteers expressed interest in the results of our collection and what the data gets used for, as well as when I will be holding future events. Beach-cleaning is such a great way to not only do some good for the environment but also to get some fresh air and exercise. Living on a small island as we do, none of use are ever too far away from some form of coastline and if we could all pick up litter each time we visited a beach, it would make the world of difference. 

The results from today's clean were as follows: 

-32 metal items

-32 sanitary items

-38 paper items

-20 wood items

-539 plastic items

-21 rubber items

-32 cloth items

Cleaning up Goring-by-Sea!

It may have been heavily overcast and the wind may have had a slight chill to it, but that didn't stop myself and 22 other brilliant volunteers from arming ourselves with litter pickers and tackling the shores of Worthing on Sunday!

I posted back in January about becoming a beachwatch survey organiser for the Marine Conservation Society and the weekend just gone saw my first event go ahead. I was quite nervous beforehand, having never arranged anything like this before, and I was concerned that less volunteers would turn up than the 18 I had confirmed on the site. Particularly as, despite the Saturday being gloriously sunny and (dare I say) Spring-like, the weather on Sunday was that of heavy cloud that was certainly not budging. I was pleasantly surprised when the allotted time came around (an hour after high tide, of course) and lots of people began to arrive, some seasoned beach-cleaners and some (like me!) who were brand new to the game, but all raring to go! We even had several younger (and very eager) volunteers which I was especially pleased to see. 

After giving a safety briefing and dividing everyone up into groups, all 23 of us headed over to the 100m strip of beach I had measured out earlier, with clipboards, litter-pickers and bin bags in hand. At first glance, there was a fair amount of rubbish to be collected but once we all got going and started recording each piece we found, it didn't take long at all for the bags to start bulging! I was both amazed and disgusted at the level of litter in such a small area. 

A huge amount of cable ties were found as well as fishing line, cotton bud sticks and rope. As would be expected, the vast majority of litter recorded was plastic. Happily, I had several volunteers say to me that they were really enjoying it and finding relaxing and therapeutic. I'm inclined to agree with that and after a while, I wasn't taking any notice of the biting wind, just focusing on the stretch of pebbles at my feet.

I estimated with the number of hands we had that the survey would take about an hour and I was more or less on the money. We piled all of our bags together and I weighed each one individually, finally coming to a grand total of 13.45kg! It really was astounding that we had jointly managed to collect quite so much from only 100m. When you stop and think about the amount of coastline we have in this country though, it's really very worrying to think how much litter is sitting on our beaches. If 23 people can pick up seven refuse bags worth of rubbish in an hour, just think how much more could be achieved if this was carried out all around the UK!

Even though the sun hadn't made an appearance all day, there were plenty of smiling faces as we finished up and started heading back to the car park. Several of the volunteers asked if there would be more cleans coming up and I am certainly eager to arrange future events based on the success of this one. It was really encouraging to see just how many people genuinely wanted to give up their time to do something so worthwhile. As one volunteer said, it really gives you a sense of pride.

In a nutshell, we collected:

-55 metal items

-3 medical items

-26 sanitary items

-31 paper items

-15 wood items

-26 glass items

-3 ceramic items

-615 plastic items!

-37 polystyrene items

-23 rubber items

-72 cloth items

A huge thank you to everyone who turned up and donated their time and energy! You were all fantastic!

If you are interested in future beach clean-ups, visit the MCS website.

A Very Pleasant Risk Assessment

As you may or may not know, I am holding a beach clean-up event on Sunday 8th March on behalf of the Marine Conservation Society. Part of being the organiser involves carrying out a risk assessment of the beach in question and today myself and my mum popped down to Worthing for that very reason. I have been to the beach several times in the past so I know it reasonably well but I also wanted to get an idea of the space we would be litter-picking in and the sorts of facilities available to us on the day.

The last time I visited this beach, Goring-by-Sea, the wind was absolutely howling and there was misty rain in the air which made a casual stroll rather unpleasant after some time! This afternoon was a total contrast to this; the heavy clouds from earlier on in the day had broken up and the sun was out, lending a mildness to the air. We were both surprised at the lack of a coastal breeze once we were on the beach, which is often responsible for bringing the temperature down a few degrees. It was actually very pleasant and I have my fingers firmly crossed that we will have a repeat of such conditions on the day of the event!

Having forgotten to bring either a tape measure or pedometer, I roughly paced out the space we will need for the survey and then checked this area for potential hazards. While wandering along the beach, we spotted various naturally occurring debris such as fish vertebrae and various egg cases. I had to do a little I.D. work on the egg cases when we got back home as I know very little about them. I found them to be whelk and either dogfish or catshark cases. I had an inkling about the latter but the whelk case was news to me: I've always wondered where those strange objects resembling bubble-wrap came from!

I have a decent number of confirmed volunteers for the beachwatch event but more are always welcome! If you are interested in taking part, you can visit this link to register.