I was pleased to read your article on the detrimental effects of balloons on the environment (The dark side of the balloon boom – is it time they were banned?, 2 April). I attend a yoga class on the first floor of a building in Chiswick, London, and I have been repeatedly disturbed by the sight of a helium balloon caught in a tree outside the window there.
Over the last 10 years, I have watched it metamorphose from a silvery helium balloon with a string into a grey, stringy mess that still hasn’t disappeared. Each time I see it, I despair that people still insist on so often buying balloons for celebrations without concern for the environmental impact that they will have once discarded.
Beatrix Chappell
London
