I've never heard of one human being getting a ticket for littering. I know it is illegal but it is very seldom enforced unless you make a huge mess somewhere.
I've never even heard anyone express a concern about it. If that same balloon WASN'T filled with helium and you threw it on the ground, you would get a ticket. It's kinna the same thing.
I don't think it's a matter of making a "huge" mess. My roomie just told me an old co-worker of hers got a ticket for tossing a cigarette butt and that's smaller than a balloon.
This post was edited by ProblemCh1ld at December 20, 2016 12:31 AM MST
Maybe you would. I wouldn't. No one cares around here if I throw a balloon on the ground. Trust me. I have littered aplenty and never was taken to task for it and again I have never heard of anyone in any area that I have lived ever getting a ticket for this.
I never known about anyone getting one but I did live near a town that had a law against intentionally releasing balloons into the air for that reason.
Because some of those balloons are carrying hand written messages to newly deceased loved ones from their children. : ( It's called heaven's mail. It wouldn't be fair to write a ticket for that.
A cynical ploy to sell balloons is that, and no mistake, surely?
A bigger concern we have in the UK is Chinese Lanterns (toy hot-air balloons), both for the obvious fire risk and for their thin wire frames being potentially hazardous to farm animals. I don't recall seeing much fuss made about toy helium- balloons, but yes, abandoned they are litter.
I gather there have been calls to ban wasting helium in this way anyway. It is extracted from natural-gas or petroleum, but exists there in very small concentrations. It has a range of serious uses, and the fear is of shortages for these.
WM BARR . =ABSOLUTE TRASH 