Rejected petition Make it illegal to release balloons and paper lanterns

Rejected on 31 October 2023

This petition proposes that the act of balloon and lantern releases should be made illegal on the basis that it knowingly harms the environment and ecosystems.

Mass balloon and lantern releases are becoming more and more common as part of funerals or remembrance ceremonies.

Releasing balloons and lanterns into the air ultimately means that they end up in fields or the sea, where they are ingested by animals, causing them to suffocate or die with them in their stomachs.

Charities such as the Marine Conservation Society have published extensive evidence of the harm that releasing balloons into the environment can do.

Why was this petition rejected?

There’s already a petition about this issue. We cannot accept a new petition when we already have one about a very similar issue.

You are more likely to get action on this issue if you sign and share a single petition.

You may wish to sign this petition which calls for a similar action: Ban all Balloon releasing in the UK: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/641415

We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.