Balloons take years to decompose: UK researchers invent ‘Bioloon’ as nature-friendly alternative
Discarded balloons “leak toxic chemicals into the environment" and can easily be swallowed by animals.
A UK PhD student may have found the solution to a global problem - the deadly risk that discarded balloons pose to wildli
While they are a symbol of joy and celebration, balloons can be harmful and even lethal to marine life and birds when they end up on rubbish heaps, beaches and in the sea.
A 2019 study by the University of Tasmania found balloons were "the highest-risk plastic debris item" for seabirds, 32 times more deadly than ingesting hard plastics.
The ‘Bioloon’ hopes to solve that problem. The new invention is made from a material that biodegrades within nine months.
Its inventors hope to be selling it by 2028 - and as an added bonus for those planning a shindig, the balloon inflates as easily as a conventional one.
Bioloon: 100 per cent degradable balloon
"There were hundreds of trials. We had many, many failures," admits Juliana Cumming, a PhD student at Imperial College London and co-creator of the ‘Bioloon’.
In a university laboratory, the 29-year-old proudly showed the AFP news agency a flask containing a precious yellow liquid. Once solidified, it becomes a soft, elastic material with a texture comparable to that of a conventional balloon.
But there is one crucial difference - it breaks down completely within nine months unlike traditional balloons, according to Cumming.
The Bioloon is the result of a public-private partnership launched by Charlotte Melia, an events entrepreneur, who describes herself as environmentally minded. "I was a party planner for over 10 years and...I was very sustainably focused. The final stumbling block for me was the balloon waste," she tells AFP. "We were putting out thousands of party balloons every single week," she shares, but they were only there "for a matter of hours simply to be popped and thrown in the trash".
The final straw came when she realised "balloons were non-biodegradable" even though the packaging said they would break up "at the rate of an oak leaf".
Convinced that a sustainable alternative was possible, Melia decided with an associate to put up some £30,000 (€35,000) to partly fund Cumming's doctoral research.
Balloons “leak toxic chemicals into the environment"
Imperial College's department of chemical engineering estimates that between 20 and 25 billion balloons are purchased worldwide every year but most buyers are unaware of the environmental impact of traditional balloons which, despite their advertising, do not degrade. A number of studies have documented the dangers posed by balloons once they end up in nature, particularly for marine life and birds.
Cumming spent three years developing her formula. The starting point is the same as for an ordinary balloon: natural latex derived from the sap of the rubber tree, native to the Amazon - a basis which has changed very little since the balloon was invented in 1824.
"In order to turn the natural latex into something that we refer to as rubber it goes through this process called sulphur vulcanisation," she explains. That involves adding "sulphur accelerators, antioxidants, and activators into the material" which "prevents the biodegradation of balloons" and also leaks "toxic chemicals into the environment".
Condoms and clothing next?
It was this stage of the manufacturing process which became the focus of Cumming's research.
"Our balloon is still made with natural latex, but we blend it with another biodegradable polymer and we don't add any of these additives that are used in traditional balloons," she said.
"So this retains the biodegradability," she added, declining to reveal further details of the patented process.
According to the creators, the Bioloon breaks down regardless of where it ends up. The researchers "tested it in soil, seawater and deionised water”.
“It degraded in all of those conditions...and we estimate that it would biodegrade within about nine months," explained Cumming.
For Melia, the technology's potential extends far beyond party decorations, and could be adapted for everyday and medical products, including household gloves, surgical gloves, latex clothing and condoms.
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