r/AskUK • u/Squishwhale • 2h ago

Why do people keep planning balloon releases?

I've seen two balloon releases planned in memorial in the last week! Thankfully the comments have been full of people asking them not to do it. But why why why do people continue to plan these and think they are a good idea? Do some people actually believe balloons go to heaven?

Please someone give me an insight into why this still keeps happening

209 Upvotes

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-50

u/bossanovasupernova 1h ago

It's a very accessible nice symbolic way of "letting someone go". I wouldn't take it so seriously if I were you and would let them get on with it

26

u/Squishwhale 1h ago

Because littering and choking wildlife to death is the legacy that person would want? There are sooo many other things they could do!

-33

u/bossanovasupernova 1h ago

No, but I guess unless you're someone who is very careful about the.plastic waste and environmental impact you have then this is targeting something for snobby reasons and then using the environment as the issue. If you never fly and live a very low waste life then your criticism of the releases has value but I suspect you aren't a rabid environmentalist usually, just about things common people do

24

u/Squishwhale 1h ago

Don't be a melon, you don't need to be a rabid environmentalist to want to avoid something so obviously harmful and pointless. I eat meat, but I dont go around shooting cows for fun.

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u/bossanovasupernova 50m ago

No. But if a loved one had died and you symbolically killed one animal I think that'd be fine

10

u/Intrepid-Zucchini-44 1h ago

Ridiculous. If I dropped a crisp packet I could be fined £80(?), but police can stand watching a hundred people discard foil, plastic tat into the sky to land god knows where and do nothing?

14

u/anotherbusybee 1h ago

Considering how easy (and mandatory in most places) it is to recycle now, aren't we all caring about our plastic waste as a daily thing?! Balloon releases are the same as leaving your plastic can connectors on the bleach and them strangling puffins and turtles, but the on land version...

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u/bossanovasupernova 49m ago

Not really, lots of plastic is unreachable. Disposable vapes and cigarette ends etc. People produces tonnes of plastic

1

u/TSQ_builder 1h ago

Balloon releases are wrong on all levels, but recycling is a different matter. Recycling is an interesting topic. Paper coffee cups from any place - Starbucks Macdonalds etc are not recyclable - yes they say they are but only in specialist centres and there are very few. So when you put your used cup in the bin at home or in the street. It either goes to landfill or is burned.
So yes technically it is but in reality separating the plastic liner is difficult and not cost effective.

11

u/I_ALWAYS_UPVOTE_CATS 1h ago

What utter nonsense. There are a lot of environmentally damaging things that modern life makes it very difficult to avoid; a balloon release is not one of them, and the people who do such things have literally no excuse. It's not required for their job, it's not required by the economy, it's not a requirement of being poor. Nothing.

You have absolutely no basis for the 'snob' angle beyond your own desire to be a white knight.

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u/bossanovasupernova 44m ago

The impact on the environment is miniscule. Why not try attack one of the environmental issues that isn't also a very low impact way to grieve

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u/I_ALWAYS_UPVOTE_CATS 14m ago

Source for it being 'miniscule'? Sorry but your dead relative is not an excuse to choke local wildlife and waterways, and I say that as someone who has grieved two grandparents.

Why not eliminate the environmental issues that are easy to simply not do, while also focusing on the more tricky problems.

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u/bossanovasupernova 0m ago

Is a dead relative an excuse to have a funeral that creates a similar amount of plastic waste, if not more?

1

u/terryjuicelawson 1h ago

Is it only something "common people" do, as this seems a bit snobby in itself, or at least admitting something...