A council in Adelaide's eastern suburbs wants the state government to ban balloons as a part of a growing list of single-use plastic products getting phased out in South Australia.
City of Norwood Payneham and St Peters (NPSP) Mayor Robert Bria said balloons should be banned from its public parks and facilities where they are a popular addition to birthday parties and other such events.
He said balloons discarded or lost to the environment were "very dangerous" for wildlife and sea life.
"That's why other councils have banned helium balloons being released into the sky and are imposing significant fines," Cr Bria told ABC Radio Adelaide.
In March last year, South Australia became the first jurisdiction to legislate against businesses selling, supplying or distributing single-use plastic straws, cutlery or drink stirrers, with some exemptions for medical reasons.
The ban is expected to be expanded this year to include all polystyrene cups, bowls and plates, with a longer term intent to scrap all takeaway coffee cups, plastic bags, and other takeaway food service items.
Cr Bria said the council was providing comment to a government discussion paper about phasing out more products over the next "three to four years".
This also included items like plastic confetti and plastic balloon sticks.
He said councillors on Monday night agreed that NPSP should go one step further and request that balloons were also on the list.
"The council took the view there are alternatives to balloons in terms of celebrations or other milestones," Cr Bria said.
Colourful killers
Clean-up Australia said balloons were a "major threat" to the environment, especially to marine life like seabirds and turtles which could mistake them for a food source and become entangled in balloon attachments.
It pointed to University of Tasmania research, undertaken in collaboration with the CSIRO and released in 2019, that found balloons and other soft plastics were 32 times more likely to kill seabirds than hard plastic waste, with balloons the "highest-risk plastic debris item for seabirds".
Clean-up Australia recommended that people wanting to celebrate with balloons used safer alternatives such as bubble wands and bubble mix, string and paper bunting, kites, and paper pinwheels.
No authority
Cr Bria admitted the council it did not have the authority to ban balloons other than "at council events on council property", a position several other SA councils, including the City of Onkaparinga, had already taken.
"It's a state government decision and will be up to the [environment] minister of the day," he said.
"None the less, [the council has] taken the view it has to ask the government to reconsider its position."
The council's position has drawn mixed responses on the ABC text line, with some considering it a good idea and others a stretch too far.
"We live in the hills quite away from towns and villages and we have found glossy helium balloons tangled in trees or deflated on ground several times over the years." — Anonymous
"Tens of thousands of people receive the daily the newspaper (u guessed, wrapped in plastic). I currently have hundreds in my cupboard and re-use as a bin liner. Surely time and effort would be better spent lobbying these mass polluters to use combustible products rather than focus on, for God's sake, balloons!!!" — Bronte
"Released helium balloons burst and can resemble jellyfish and be ingested by sea life. There are lots of other alternatives when celebrating." — Anonymous
Welcome to SA. Have your papers ready. We are becoming a draconian nanny state. Big brother is watching and will squash ANY JOY. Happiness banned. Fear mongering the norm." — Anonymous
An ABC caller also questioned why balloons should be banned when plastic wrapping and hard plastic trays for biscuits, for example, remained freely available.
Cr Bria said councillors were expecting the move to be controversial.
"They knew they would be labelled as killjoys and are prepared to take the heat on that because we think this is an important environmental issue," he said.
