California Beach Town Is Banning Balloons For A Good Cause

Birthday celebrations held outdoors are about to be a little less colorful in the name of protecting the environment for this Californian town. Starting in 2024, Laguna Beach is banning the sale and use of balloons.

These seemingly harmless party staples cause quite a bit of damage to the environment, specifically the ocean. In a bid to mitigate future harm, the town’s council is taking matters into its own hands and popping these decorations out of use. According to the regulation, people caught using them at gatherings in public spaces and beaches will be fined up to US$500. However, you will still be allowed to use them at indoor events, so don’t chuck out your Party City balloons just yet.

The move comes after it was found that these vibrant party favors make up a pretty hefty percentage of trash collected from beaches in the state. In an interview with Grist, Chad Nelsen, chief executive of Surfrider Foundation—a nonprofit environmental organization—mentioned that nearly 2,500 of them were collected in 2022 during beach cleanups set up by Surfrider.

Balloons, especially helium ones, have a nasty tendency to find their way into the ocean after losing air. And since most are made from latex or Mylar, they take decades to break down and eventually contribute to microplastics in bodies of water. As a result, unassuming marine life and birds might even mistake them for food or get strangled by their plastic cords.

Some might even get caught in telephone lines which can spark fires and power outages. For example, 1,300 minutes of power outages in Riverside, California, can be traced back to balloons being caught in the wires.

This move has been slowly making its way across the nation and first began in 2016, when Nantucket, Massachusetts, banned any balloons filled with gas lighter than air. Other areas, such as East Hampton, New York, and Solana Beach and Encinitas, California, have since incorporated the same ruling against helium-type versions.

All in all, these party decorations might not register in the minds of most as causing this much damage, but as we move toward a clean and green future, it’s important to start with the smaller facets of our daily lives. Unfortunately, this means party planners will need to get more creative.

[via Grist and Fast Company, Photo 238405501 © Palex66 | Dreamstime.com]