Comments on: You Are Worth It: Biodegradable Balloons

By: Justin

Justin — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 23:49:45 +0000

Good question Mike, but hopefully it isn’t a concern as I won’t be releasing them as originally planned. I’ll be handing most of them out and anchoring a small number throughout the Green Corridor area.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 22:29:16 +0000

This is a neat idea, but I’m wondering what essex county farmers think about random seeds landing in their crops? I’m not sure if it even matters, but it might be something worth checking out?

By: Annie Banannie

Annie Banannie — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 05:45:59 +0000

If you’re going to leave the balloons anywhere, you’ll want to pick them up when they’re not floating any more, because both balloons and oak leaves take a while to decompose. However, if they get away and float off, that’s when I don’t think it’s that big of a deal since they usually break into tiny pieces.

If you put them in tall grass or other places that aren’t specifically landscaped for something else, why don’t you use potting soil and the wildflower seeds as weights? That way when you pick up the balloons you can pierce the weights and leave the dirt and seeds there. Just a thought.

Also, I like the idea of giving these away instead of releasing them. Unless you’re getting a lot of press that mentions the “You Are Worth It” slogan, the message will be lost quickly. Imagine the impact of hundreds of people carrying around your balloon all day. Everyone will ask what it means and where they got it.

Annie Banannie, Balloon Storyteller
Because Every Balloon Has a Story . . .

By: darren

darren — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 22:48:46 +0000

You can even see in this study, an oak leaf was picked for it’s slow decomposing properties:

“Yellow poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera)
was chosen as the fast decomposing leaf type and
white oak (Quercus alba) as the slow decomposing
leaf type. Yellow poplar leaves are expected to
decompose more quickly than white oak leaves,
which have less available labile carbon and are thus
harder to decompose.”

Link: http://tiny.cc/xAxe9

Also this link which explain the breakdown of a oak leaf depends greatly on where it is.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12698351

So that statement from the balloon company can be misleading.

So that’s probably why this balloon company states an oak leaf, to give people a false view of it’s rate of decomposition. I swear in this path I walk in at Ojibway oak leaves remain longer than others and it definitely takes longer than a year since i see them still there after the snow has melted and through summer.

By: darren

darren — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 22:05:52 +0000

I’m glad to hear this justin since I’ve contacted ERCA and Erie Wildlife Rescue about this mass release. It’s seem hypocritical for a group who is so green to be doing this which can cause so much harm.

Have you walked in the woods often to see how quickly a oak leaf breaks down? I walk in Ojibway all the time and I still see oak leaves from years past on the ground. So these balloons do not break down over night. Even if you use hemp strings, it will still cause harm. If a state thinks highly enough of this to ban the mass release of balloons, I hope that at least can convince you that this is wrong to do.

I hope you will just hand out seeds send the balloons back. It’s better our environment is without them wasting away. You will be doing a service to the wildlife.

By: Justin

Justin — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 21:17:17 +0000

As I understand it, the balloons degrade at the same rate as an oak leaf. Having given it some thought and certainly through engaging in this conversation, my plan will be to forego any mass release of the balloons. Instead I’ll be anchoring a small number of them in the Green Corridor area and giving them out to people and requesting that they not release them into the air. I much prefer it to be a positive gesture.

By: Owen

Owen — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 20:21:37 +0000

Can’t wait to see everything put together for the Open Corridor on Thursday. I’ve been driving by every so often, watching some of the installations going up. I like that solar powered watering can.

One thing that I wonder about though, with respect to the balloons, how fast do they degrade? I just wonder where they’ll end up come Thursday night/Friday morning, and how soon they’ll decompose… hopefully not affecting wildlife.

There are a couple Canadian links to the concern about animals seeing the balloons as prey, and ingesting them. But these natural balloons are ok, right?

http://www.mcsuk.org/downloads/balloons/factsheet.pdf

http://www.hww.ca/hww2.asp?id=173

By: samantha

samantha — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 03:13:01 +0000

oooh that’s a perfect time. i hope i can make it in time.

i totally will take a few : ) i was just thinking how it would be neat to weigh some down in the tall grasses on medians.

By: darren

darren — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 02:44:10 +0000

http://www.longwood.edu/CLEANVA/balloons.htm

I still think it’s littering. Some states even Virginia have made releasing balloons against the law.

Sorry to go on and on.

By: Justin

Justin — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:36:32 +0000

From the research I found, it indicated that latex balloons react as I mentioned before. However, concerns about the effects of balloons on wildlife are certainly something I’m going to take into consideration, and as I also mentioned before, the idea is still evolving and it may not result with any significant number of balloons being released. As for the seeds and their dispersal, I view the many possible iterations of this project as suggestions for ways of thinking about seed bombing (not that all suggestions have to work, or by that definition, succeed) and for ways of interacting with the urban environment. Ultimately, I very much enjoy the possibility of the balloons being part of an exchange, with the message on the balloons impacting the experience of that exchange.