Media Partners Needed

Please help share positive stories of the alternatives to balloon release!

As a media outlet, you are a trusted public messenger in a unique position to help implement change.

The visual display of balloon release events covered by the media makes it difficult to overcome the social acceptance that leads to peoples’ decisions to participate in, or plan, a mass release.

Your help in sharing stories of communities gathering without a balloon release will help shift the norm and encourage meaningful alternatives. It is the ceremony of coming together to remember or to celebrate a cause or loved-one that is most important. 

Our goal is to reach as many people as possible and encourage alternatives to balloon releases. Please partner with us and help Prevent Balloon Litter. 

The Prevent Balloon Litter Campaign encourages people to learn about balloon litter - that released balloons do become harmful litter, to select alternatives to releasing balloons - to celebrate, honor and remember people and events, to pledge to use one of these alternatives and help prevent balloon litter, and to encourage others to do the same.

Below is more background information on our effort and the resources available to you. We would enjoy speaking with you about opportunities to work together.

Please reach out to us at PreventBalloonLitter@gmail.com.

Why our focus on balloon Litter?

All released balloons and their attachments eventually return to Earth as litter, landing in the ocean, inland waterbodies, or on land. Balloons are unique among all the man-made litter. People often purchase balloons with the intent to release them into the environment. Once airborne, released balloons can travel long distances, some hundreds of miles, before they burst or deflate. Once back on land or in the sea, balloons and their attachments become a deadly threat to wildlife. Scientists who work with stranded whales, dolphins, seals, and sea turtles have found balloons, balloon pieces, and balloon ribbons in the stomachs of many of these dead animals. Balloon ribbon can also wrap around fins, flippers, wings, and limbs - leading to starvation, infection, amputation or drowning. 

In addition to wildlife impacts, there is evidence that up to 20% of electrical power outages are caused by foil balloons getting tangled in power lines. According to one employee of a utility company, balloons released on Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Easter, graduations and at weddings bring outages, “almost without fail.” Several electrical providers’ websites and notices to customers include “don’t release balloons” messages for this reason.

The Mid-Atlantic Regional Council on the Ocean (MARCO) – the recognized Regional Ocean Partnership in the Mid-Atlantic representing the states of Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and New York – has partnered with several aquariums on a campaign to turn the tide on intentional balloon release behavior. This campaign, Prevent Balloon Litter, seeks to change the social norm around intentional balloon releases.