Can you please inform your readers of the dangers of balloon releases? Visually, balloon releases are beautiful. Symbolically, they can mean more to people than just a colorful display drifting into the sky. Most times, family and friends are releasing their emotions and sorrow as they watch the balloons drift away.
But balloon releases are not healthy for our environment. Balloons that are released into the air don’t just go away; they either get snagged on something such as tree branches, or electrical wires, or they deflate and fall back to Earth where they can create a lot of problems possibly ending up in the ocean and along shores becoming marine debris. Balloons can be mistaken for food by marine life, and if eaten, and ingested, balloons can lead to serious internal injury, and death. The string or ribbon on the balloons can also wrap around marine life causing injury, illness, and suffocation.
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How about we honor our loved ones with a more sustainable practice such as planting a tree? A tree would be a really special memorial because it's something that will last into the future. Or why not drop flower petals into a pond, lake, or stream? You'll see (the petals) disperse kind of like the balloons. It may create that same feeling, but will be a much healthier alternative for our environment.
Kelly Holman
Florissant