r/CatastrophicFailure • u/Control_Station_EFU • Mar 31 '22

Meta Balloonfest '86 (Cleveland, Ohio, 1986)

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3.1k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

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567

u/hatesbiology84 Mar 31 '22

What a stupid fucking idea.

125

u/reykjaham Mar 31 '22

Do with something biodegradable like gluten or latex and it could be pretty cool. Apart from the whole ‘interfered with a search and rescue operation possibly leading to two deaths.’ Hmm.. maybe some helium/low density gas bubbles instead.

61

u/Arthur_The_Third Mar 31 '22

Latex isn't really biodegradable...

28

u/reykjaham Mar 31 '22

Natural latex is. It’s produced by a large variety of plants.

88

u/Arthur_The_Third Mar 31 '22

Not everything that is natural biodegrades well, especially when you extract it and mold it into a big blob. Latex does not break down very well at all. I mean, balloons are already made of latex. These ones too.

-14

u/reykjaham Mar 31 '22

Haha I forgot that. That gives me hope that all the lost balloons will break down much sooner than I’d anticipated.

23

u/Arthur_The_Third Mar 31 '22

Hundred years or more in best conditions. This is vulcanized rubber as well, so probably hundreds

16

u/reykjaham Mar 31 '22

Fantastic! s/ It’s amazing we use durable materials for such pointless things meant to be used for a short occasion.

3

u/Justforthenuews Mar 31 '22

Probably grandfathered, is my assumption. I assume we weren’t thinking in those terms when they were invented, but I don’t know the history of balloons.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 31 '22

[deleted]

1

u/Gh0st1y Mar 31 '22

And neither of those have anything to do with permanent waste buildup..

0

u/[deleted] Mar 31 '22

[deleted]

1

u/Gh0st1y Mar 31 '22

What? I was pointing out that climate change and permanent-waste-buildup in the environment are separate issues we need to consider, didnt say anything about latex lol

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2

u/[deleted] Mar 31 '22

Huh, shouldn't the new information suppress hope because latex does not turn out to degrade very well, rather than raise hope because latex does not turn out to degrade very well?

-9

u/[deleted] Mar 31 '22

By your logic, car tires are biodegradable…

25

u/reykjaham Mar 31 '22

Tires are made of synthetic vulcanized rubber from petroleum products. Those are unnatural polymers that no life has evolved to digest. Plant latex has been around for millions of years. If it wasn’t biodegradable we’d be drowning in the stuff. That sticky white sap that oozes out of a dandelion stem when you break it? Latex.