27/06/2024
An official email will be going out soon,but as someone has now posted on balloon decorators about the end of balloon recycling, I wanted to get in front of this. I am not able to post on the Australian balloon decorators forum. It is true that Balloon Recycling can no longer continue as I am not prepared or in a position to continue to fund the recycling operation with the incredibly limited funds that come from decorator memberships. Before anyone even attempts to lay the blame on me or balloon recycling, lay the blame on Hayden Agencies, on Alpen, on Anagram, on every single distributor / decorator/ balloon professional and the manufacturers and importers for just expecting that balloon waste can continue to just go to landfill . This industry needed and needs to take responsibility for the waste it produces from a single use product usually packaged in plastic. We tried, I tried and 90% of this industry ignored or chose to brush our efforts aside. I won’t get into the Terracycle balloon collection program ( not recycling program ), but balloon collection program and i won’t get into anagram backing this program without ever one shred of proof that balloons are being recycled or up-cycled. This industry deserves the banning that councils are now doing, such as Byron Bay, they are not the first and they will be the norm, balloons as a product are toxic right now in the eyes of clients, Corporates, businesses and government and if the industry believes that planting a tree or sponsoring an animal is going to solve this, then they are dreaming. The only way forward is to deal with the waste that is produced by every single person who sells, inflates or distributes or manufactures balloons…. More to be said in the near future.
