When walking along Station Road in Totnes the other day I found several burst balloons that had the name of a local shop, China Blue, on them. I collected them and returned them to the shop to tell them how I thought it was environmentally irresponsible and that they shouldn't have the balloons as they are always taken and littered. I was met with quite rude responses and with the staff blaming children from the nearby secondary school for taking the balloons rather than accepting that it is the shop's responsibility to prevent their advertising from causing litter.
This shop regularly has balloons waving around outside their shop which are then taken by children on their way to school and other passers by and either let go and float away or popped and thrown on the ground. There are also balloons scattered in the car park and still tied to the railings which the staff haven't picked up even though they told me that they cleaned up the balloons every day.
I would like the council to ban the use of balloons for advertisement in Totnes (preferably the entirity of Devon) as they are a serious environmental problem, causing the death of thousands of marine animals every year and make our town look bad when they are inevitably littered.
There are alternative ways for shops to advertise such as banners, flags, posters, and billboards, no shop needs to use balloons.
