The Cleveland City Council passed a Balloon Release Ban ordinance that prohibits intentional balloon releases of 10 more more balloons. The ordinance is a part of Cleveland's littering law, and violators will face a minor misdemeanor citation and a $150 fine. The ban includes both mylar and latex balloons.
Council members voted in favor of the ban because of issues with power outages when balloons get caught in power lines, as well as an effort to protect Lake Erie. According to the Alliance for the Great Lakes more than 18,000 pieces of balloons or balloon strings were found along the shorelines between 2016 and 2018.
The ordinance comes 35 years after the most infamous balloon release in Cleveland history — Balloonfest ‘86 where 1.5 million balloons were released as a part of a fundraiser for the United Way. The balloon release caused Burke Lakefront Airport to close its runway, prevented the Coast Guard from finding two fishermen on Lake Erie, and created an enormous amount of on both land and Lake Erie.
Sierra Club Ohio wrote a letter of thanks to Cleveland City Council members, posted below or you can read it here.
