On Thursday 22nd December 2016 DJ Pete Price of Radio City 2 (Liverpool) released 280 balloons from the top of the Radio City Tower to commemorate the lives of listeners’ loved ones who had passed away during 2016.
This annual event has taken place every year for the last 10 years. This is not an isolated event. Many companies release and have released balloons in the past including XFactor.
Releasing balloons is not an eco-friendly practice. Nothing positive is achieved. Instead balloons can travel thousands of miles and frequently end up in our oceans and waterways. Turtles mistake these balloons as jellyfish and will often die due to gut impaction. The string / ribbon / rope / twine attached to these balloons are often ingested by species, such as birds, and/or cause entanglement that often leads to death.
The Marine Conservation Society has highlighted that this act causes mass littering and is a profligate waste of Helium. (Helium is becoming scarcer and is a key gas for operating medical scanners).
At present several local authorities have a balloon release ban in place. The undersigned would now like to see the UK Parliament (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) pass legislation banning the release of all balloons (including biodegradable ones) and stop our land and seas being littering by thousands of pieces of rubber, tape, twine, string, ribbons etc.
Please visit:
http://www.mcsuk.org/downloads/pollution/beachwatch/MCS_balloons_and_chinese_lanterns_policy.pdf
http://balloonsblow.org/biodegradability-backyard-test/
Using bubbles for an event like this is a safe and cheap alternative.
Thank you for all of your support!
Updates
December 23, 2016
The momentum is incredible. This is clearly a movement now.
21 Comments
Along with this 280(they say) balloons, are thousands from publicity stunts every week. I even picked up one from Poland at the RSPB Dungeness. Please stop this now.
Utter ignorance. Calls to prevent the release were made with plenty of notice to cancel the event. Upon being made aware of the impact this would have both locally and globally, they organisers released a statement to assure us all that they had, in fact, 'responsibly planned' to endanger animals and litter the environment as a suggestion that this made it acceptable and we were all overreacting. To then announce they were making a donation to a charity to make amends was almost laughable. They knew what they were doing and what destruction and danger they were causing when they released those balloons as a publicity stunt, yet they still didn't care. It's diabolical.
I pick up around 50 a month off our beach. No one would throw this directly onto the floor so why is it ok to throw it into the sky?
I spend a lot of time on the beaches of North Wales and frequently see remains of balloons andthe plastic ribbons that they are attached to. Its easy to see how they can cause such devistation to marine wildlife. Balloons are wasteful and there are alternative that are just as fun and meaningful. In an age where we are trying to reduce the use of plastic bags and plastic bottles, banning mass balloon releases is surely the right thing to do! Lets look after our planet and all life on it - we only have one chance!
Great cause ! Time to stop damaging practices. There are plenty of ways to commemorate those lost - this is in no way aimed at anyone who has lost a loved one that was celebrated by Radio City. It is firmly aimed at any group that chooses to release environmentally damaging material unnecessarily.
Please sign this petition
I carnt see the point in myself. It only causes lots of problems
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On Thursday 22nd December 2016 DJ Pete Price of Radio City 2 (Liverpool) released 280 balloons from the top of the Radio City Tower to commemorate the lives of listeners’ loved ones who had passed away during 2016.
This annual event has taken place every year for the last 10 years. This is not an isolated event. Many companies release and have released balloons in the past including XFactor.
Releasing balloons is not an eco-friendly practice. Nothing positive is achieved. Instead balloons can travel thousands of miles and frequently end up in our oceans and waterways. Turtles mistake these balloons as jellyfish and will often die due to gut impaction. The string / ribbon / rope / twine attached to these balloons are often ingested by species, such as birds, and/or cause entanglement that often leads to death.
The Marine Conservation Society has highlighted that this act causes mass littering and is a profligate waste of Helium. (Helium is becoming scarcer and is a key gas for operating medical scanners).
At present several local authorities have a balloon release ban in place. The undersigned would now like to see the UK Parliament (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) pass legislation banning the release of all balloons (including biodegradable ones) and stop our land and seas being littering by thousands of pieces of rubber, tape, twine, string, ribbons etc.
Please visit:
http://www.mcsuk.org/downloads/pollution/beachwatch/MCS_balloons_and_chinese_lanterns_policy.pdf
http://balloonsblow.org/biodegradability-backyard-test/
Using bubbles for an event like this is a safe and cheap alternative.
Thank you for all of your support!
Updates
December 23, 2016
The momentum is incredible. This is clearly a movement now.
21 Comments
Why fine people for littering yet encourage a way of spreading this more damaging litter over a wider area.
Along with this 280(they say) balloons, are thousands from publicity stunts every week. I even picked up one from Poland at the RSPB Dungeness. Please stop this now.
Utter ignorance. Calls to prevent the release were made with plenty of notice to cancel the event. Upon being made aware of the impact this would have both locally and globally, they organisers released a statement to assure us all that they had, in fact, 'responsibly planned' to endanger animals and litter the environment as a suggestion that this made it acceptable and we were all overreacting. To then announce they were making a donation to a charity to make amends was almost laughable. They knew what they were doing and what destruction and danger they were causing when they released those balloons as a publicity stunt, yet they still didn't care. It's diabolical.
I pick up around 50 a month off our beach. No one would throw this directly onto the floor so why is it ok to throw it into the sky?
I spend a lot of time on the beaches of North Wales and frequently see remains of balloons andthe plastic ribbons that they are attached to. Its easy to see how they can cause such devistation to marine wildlife. Balloons are wasteful and there are alternative that are just as fun and meaningful. In an age where we are trying to reduce the use of plastic bags and plastic bottles, banning mass balloon releases is surely the right thing to do! Lets look after our planet and all life on it - we only have one chance!
Great cause ! Time to stop damaging practices. There are plenty of ways to commemorate those lost - this is in no way aimed at anyone who has lost a loved one that was celebrated by Radio City. It is firmly aimed at any group that chooses to release environmentally damaging material unnecessarily.
Please sign this petition
I carnt see the point in myself. It only causes lots of problems
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Why fine people for littering yet encourage a way of spreading this more damaging litter over a wider area.