Balloons soaring into the sky during vigils and memorials often offer a beautiful tribute to a loved one, but now there’s a push to try to ban balloons being released in America’s largest township.
The folks who clean up Long Island waterways say they’re not just finding a balloon here and there; they’re finding many many balloons on a regular basis, CBS2’s Carolyn Gusoff reported Monday.
“We are always picking up balloons, always. It’s not like one or two, it’s 10 or 15. Those are the balloons we see. How many go down to the bottom?” said Scott Bockner of Operation SPLASH.
xBalloons released with good intentions at family memorials or celebrations end up choking and strangling marine life, endangering boats because they can get caught in propellers and they last for years, because they do not break down.
Even so-called biodegradable balloons are not fully breaking down.