The experiment being conducted by Australian party retailer The Party’s Here has now been running for three months, carefully documenting the decomposition process of several latex balloons.
The Party’s Here first decided to measure exactly how long it takes for a basic latex balloon to biodegrade when left to its own devices in the elements at the tail end of 2017, following a number of different claims as to how effectively latex balloons biodegrade in nature. The results are being posted on its blog and Facebook.
The experiment – which is being run in conjuction with Pro Environment Balloon Alliance (PEBA) – consists of inflating the latex balloons before letting them down and placing them on some soil in a plastic container and leaving it outdoors. Here’s what was found after month three.
“The balloon colours have faded even more, particularly the Pearl Pink and Pearl Lime Green. The Ruby Red, Pearl Lime Green and Standard White appear to be the worst affected, with small holes turning to large holes and all have a brittle appearance.”
“The Diamond Clear doesn’t have holes, but has melted in on itself, become discoloured and thinner. The Standard Yellow has holes forming and cracks. The jewel colours don’t have visible holes forming, but have melted on themselves and would certainly burst on inflation.”
“The wind has moved the balloons around in the box, so some of them are now on top of each other and overlapping. The heat from Sydney summer / autumn has also caused some of them to melt / mould together. We have chosen not to disrupt them too much and haven’t pulled them apart permanently, except to lift them up to inspect them a little each month.”
There has been a marked increase in publicity surrounding the biodegradability of latex balloons over recent months, as both environmental campaigners and balloon industry best practise guidelines (such as those outlined by EBPC and BAPIA) address the issue of ‘balloon litter’.
The Party’s Here is encouraging others to conduct their own experiments so they can collate as much data from as many different enviroments as possible.
