Imperial College London Researchers Create the First Fully Biodegradable Balloon

Researchers at Imperial College London say they have developed the first fully biodegradable balloon, called the 'Bioloon,' and hope to bring it to market within two years. PhD student Juliana Cumming, who co-created it with events entrepreneur Charlotte Melia, said the formula took three years and 'hundreds of trials' to develop, with early funding of £30,000 ($41,000) that Melia and an associate put up for Cumming's doctoral research.

A 2019 University of Tasmania study published in Scientific Reports found balloons were the 'highest-risk plastic debris item' for seabirds, carrying a mortality risk 32 times higher than from ingesting hard plastics. Imperial's Department of Chemical Engineering estimates that between 20 billion and 25 billion balloons are purchased worldwide every year.

Ordinary balloons are made from natural latex, from the sap of the rubber tree, hardened through a process called sulfur vulcanization — adding sulfur accelerators, antioxidants and activators — largely unchanged since the balloon was invented in 1824. The researchers say this process is what prevents balloons from biodegrading and leaks toxic chemicals into the environment. The Bioloon still starts with natural latex but is blended with another biodegradable polymer, without those additives.

The researchers tested the Bioloon in soil, seawater and deionized water, saying it degraded in all three conditions and is estimated to fully biodegrade within about nine months; it inflates as easily as a conventional balloon.