Passing a law to “ban the release of helium-filled balloons outdoors” is one of the proposals contained in the “regulating single-use plastics in Bermuda” policy paper, which the Government has released for consultation.

In providing a “summary of the actions that should be taken in Bermuda now, based on a review of similar jurisdictions and based on the available evidence on the harms caused by plastics in and to the environment,” one of the items listed was to “legislate a ban on the release of helium-filled balloons outdoors.”

While we do not, per se, have any statistics related to balloon releases in Bermuda, we cover many events around the island, and do not ever recall covering an event where people intentionally release balloons and checking our archives shows we don’t have any footage of it happening, however looking back at our archives over the years, we have reported at least two power outages caused by balloons getting tangled in wires.

The 57 page Policy Document follows below [PDF here]: