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Mylar balloons on the beach in East Hampton. MICHAEL WRIGHT
Mylar balloons on the beach in East Hampton. MICHAEL WRIGHT
The East Hampton Town Board has introduced a new local law banning the sale of mylar and foil balloons and any balloons filled with helium or gas, starting in 2022.
The town introduced the law on Tuesday and plans to schedule a public hearing for early October on the bill.
If ultimately approved by the board, the ban on the sale of “mylar, foil and/or any balloons filled with any type of lighter than air gas, whether for public or private use” would take effect on January 1, 2022.
The ban mirrors a similar prohibition on the sale of balloons adopted by Southampton Town in June. East Hampton Village and Sag Harbor Village have already adopted bans on the sale of balloons as well.
East Hampton Town already has a statute barring the release of helium balloons.
Courtney Garneau, chair of the Eastern Long Island chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, applauded the proposal. Since 2017, she said, her group’s volunteers have collected more than 1,500 balloons from local beaches.
“And that’s just our beach clean-ups,” she said, also noting that a free-floating mylar balloon that hit an electrical transformer knocked out power to Southampton Village during July 4 weekend in 2017. “And we all know every time you go the beach you usually find balloon.”
Michael Wright on Sep 8, 2021