Over the past weekend, the Sint Maarten Nature Foundation has removed many drifting balloons at sea. Previously, the Foundation had urged various organizations, including the SCDF to find lasting solutions to the use of balloons during its events. The Foundation had also asked the SCDF to limit the quantity of single-use plastics at the Festival Village this year, but never received a response.
During the carnival last year, the Foundation recorded a significant increase in plastic waste and debris. “While we are not sure if these balloons sprang up during the two balloon-related events over the weekend, we still urge the SCDF to not only make the celebration of 50 years of carnival fun and exciting, but also both durable and long lasting. minimal impact on our environment ”, commented Tadzio Bervoets, Director of Nature Foundation.
“The balloons might look nice, but they have a number of environmental issues.
What goes up must come down. Balloons are dangers when they enter the environment. All balloons, whether intentionally released or not, return to Earth including those marketed as "biodegradable latex".
Balloons kill countless animals and are particularly harmful to endangered species of sea turtles and birds. The balloons return to land and sea where they can be mistaken for food and eaten by animals. Sea turtles, dolphins, whales, fish and birds have been reported with stomach balloons, ribbons and string leading to entanglement and death.
There are two types of balloons in common use, latex and mylar.
Although latex balloons are considered biodegradable, it can take 6 months to 4 years to decompose and they can cause a lot of damage before them. In one experiment, researchers observed that balloons floating in seawater deteriorated much more slowly and retained their elasticity even after 12 months. “It is very unfortunate that once again we have had to clean up hazardous plastics after advocating for the use of alternatives. The same thing happened after the Heineken regatta after the use of water balloons in one of the events ”, continued Tadzio Bervoets.
“Many people, including the staff of the Nature Foundation, are looking forward to celebrating fifty years of Carnival. But this celebration should come at no cost to our natural environment and the various animals that will be killed by balloons and other single-use plastics. Therefore, we urge the SCDF to take the right steps and move away from single-use plastics. We also urge the government and parliament to speed up the adoption of the proposed ban on single-use plastic items, ”Bervoets concluded.
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