The efforts of Susan McGraw Keber of the East Hampton Town Trustees to persuade the Suffolk County Legislature to enact a ban on the intentional release of balloons paid off on Sept. 4, when that body voted unanimously to do so.
Ms. McGraw Keber had urged the Legislature to pass such a ban, which is intended to protect wildlife and the environment, at its July 16 general meeting, and was confident that the body would prove agreeable. The vote followed a 30-day public comment period.
The law provides that no person, nonprofit organization, firm, corporation, or municipality shall knowingly release, organize the release of, condone the release of, or intentionally cause to be released into the atmosphere helium or lighter-than-air gas balloons within the county. Previously, county law allowed up to 25 helium-filled balloons to be released in a 24-hour period.
The Legislature’s action followed bans enacted by East Hampton Town in February, Southampton Town, and the City of Long Beach.
“I’m so excited,” Ms. McGraw Keber, who was accompanied to the Legislature by Jillian Kampf of the Surfrider Foundation’s Eastern Long Island chapter, said on Monday. “It was unanimous.” Legislator Bridget Fleming “was extremely supportive of this effort right from the beginning.”
“We are a coastal community, and I support all efforts to keep our water and waterways free of hazardous debris that affects our marine life and ecosystems,” Ms. Fleming said in a statement issued following the vote. “I applaud Legislator Sarah Anker for her leadership, and Suffolk County’s efforts to follow the lead of East Hampton, particularly Trustee Susan McGraw Keber, and Southampton Towns in protecting our environment.”
Latex and Mylar balloons are the most common form of floating garbage within 200 miles of American shorelines, according to the Ocean Conservancy. Balloons are a popular accessory at celebrations like birthdays, weddings, and graduations, but their effect on wildlife can be lethal. Often mistaken for food, ingestion is a major threat to marine mammals and sea turtles. Animals can also become entangled in the ribbons commonly affixed to balloons, which can cut deeply into their flesh or strangle them.
Evidence shows that latex balloons break down over time into a sticky substance in salt water, but Mylar or foil balloons never degrade, according to the statement from Ms. Fleming’s office. (Mylar is the brand name for a type of stretched polyester film that is found in products including food packaging and is used as a protective covering, an electrical and thermal insulator, and reflective material.)
“I look at this as the first step in getting people to recognize that balloons are in fact a single-use litter,” Ms. McGraw Keber said of the Legislature’s vote, “and that they are very harmful, especially to East End fisheries. Everyone who goes on a boat says they see nothing but Mylar and latex, and the ribbons that get caught around animals.”
Last year, Ms. McGraw Keber, who is also an illustrator and cartoonist, designed a “balloon fish” of found balloons, which she said was an effort to convey the message to children that balloons are hazardous to marine life. The design now adorns T-shirts that the trustees sell, with proceeds going to the Rysam Fund, a scholarship they award annually to a graduating high school student.
At the trustees’ meeting on Monday, Ms. McGraw Keber told her colleagues that she now plans artwork depicting schools of fish, made from found Mylar balloons.
She and other environmentalists are also hoping for a statewide ban, and she said this week that Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. has written legislation to that end. There could be a vote next year.
From there, Ms. McGraw Keber hopes for an outright ban on the sale or distribution of Mylar balloons, legislation that is in place on Block Island.
“There is no responsible way of discarding balloons because they end up in landfills . . . or blown away into waterways,” she said. Mylar is “not biodegradable, contrary to what people are being told. Hopefully, I will be able to effect, or at least get started on, a ban. It’s like smoking — it’s a thing of the past. We have to take into consideration our environment when we buy products.”