 Balloon releases are actually really bad. Power companies estimate that up to 20% of outages are caused by balloons. And if they aren't causing a power outage in your neighborhood, they're traveling hundreds of miles to end up in a seabird's stomach. Only 5% of the litter seabirds eat is made from soft plastics, but they cause more than 40% of deaths. And if you think that because you're not close to the ocean, then you shouldn't worry about it, you're also wrong. Balloons can travel thousands of miles without popping. In 1998, a balloon was released at the Winter Olympics in Japan and it wound up in Los Angeles two days later. That's the 5,300 mile journey. So it's no surprise that over 30,000 balloons wind up on our beaches every year.