30 March 2012

Children want ban on balloon danger
Pupils from Keep Wales Tidy's Eco-Schools programme are calling on the National Assembly for Wales to ban balloon and Chinese lantern releases across Wales, and to eradicate the threat of choking and entanglement among marine wildlife and farm animals.

The campaign is backed by The Marine Conservation Society and Cardiff Council's biodiversity department.

The organisations, spurred on by Welsh Eco-Schools, want to raise awareness among the public of the dangers both balloons and Chinese lanterns can cause in the environment.

They are encouraging people to sign a petition on the National Assembly for Wales website to urge Assembly Members to make Wales the first UK country to stop releases on its soil.

MCS said its Beachwatch Big Weekend surveys had revealed that balloon litter had tripled on Welsh beaches in the last decade but that many people did not consider balloons to be litter £ because they were let go rather than dropped by people.

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