The first thing we have to announce this week is that we have a new Balloon Market show that we are calling the Balloon Market Buzz. This is going to be a shorter, news-oriented show that is going to come out every now and then on PartyWorldwide.net. If you are unfamiliar with partyworldwide.net, it was started by the people behind Progressive Party Europe a balloon and party trade magazine. They send out a couple of emails every week with news articles, centred around the party industry and is a great resource to grab a cup of tea and catch up on what is happening in the industry. We were approached to do a show for them in this vein so that’s what we are doing. Head over to PartyWorldwide.net to see the shows, sign up for the emails while you’re there! Alternatively, you can get the buzz on our YouTube channel by looking at this playlist here: Balloon Market Buzz.

The next thing to talk about is that balloon releases are in the news again. There was the tragic case of a young boy who recently passed away from a degenerative brain disease. This received a lot of media attention and several balloon releases were held in his memory. While this was a beautiful moment to commemorate the life of a sweet little boy, it does again raise the issue that balloon releases have. We’ve always seen balloon releases as littering and do not sell balloons to anyone looking to release balloons into the environment and we would urge any balloon retailers to do the same. There is a negative backlash from the public that businesses are facing when they do balloon releases, and there have even been calls for balloons to be banned all together, this is the bigger picture and we need to all say no to balloon releases if we are to protect our industry.

So, what can you do to help?

The first thing is to join PEBA. This is the Pro Environment Balloon Alliance and is based in Australia. They have a worldwide community of balloon artists, decorators and retailers that all are working to protect the balloon and party industry. They have guidelines on how to educate people on the environmental impact of balloons and are even doing a study as to just how long it takes for a latex balloon to breakdown. Find more on their website here: http://www.peba.com.au/

The next thing is to add a weight onto every balloon that you sell. This is a simple thing and won’t stop mass balloon releases, but it will stop balloons being released accidentally, preventing littering and an upset child!

Thirdly is education. Educate your customers on the impact balloon releases have and what they could do instead of a balloon release. Seed bombs are good for funerals or raising money for a charity. You’ll often find that the general public just won’t have thought about the impact of balloons before and a simple bit of education will change their mind!

Lastly it Pin-it & Bin-it. This is something we’ve seen where people have sent balloons out from their shop with a tag on it showing how to correctly dispose of a balloon once the customers has finished with it. Simply stick a pin in it to deflate the balloon and throw it in the bin.

Rob

As always, you can get in touch with us by commenting below, sending us an email or commenting on Facebook and Twitter. If you would like to receive these weekly video updates, you can either keeping checking this blog, subscribe to email updates in your account settings or you can subscribe to our Youtube channel.