Biodegradable Gnome Balloons Leave A Garden Behind
by April Streeter, Gothenburg, Sweden on 08.10.08
The whole idea of packaging embedded with seeds has been a Cradle-to-Cradle staple for a long time (seed "bombs" were even used by the Green Guerillas in New York in the 1970s) though never successfully transferred to the mainstream. Since packaging still has so far to go to be anything approaching sustainable (Bought any electronic media lately? It's seemingly swathed in a double layer of impenetrable and unredeemable plastic) any efforts to point out that packaging need not be so over-the-top and unfriendly are still welcome.
Helium-filled gnome balloons made from fully biodegradable PLA (polyactide) film and lined with flower seeds were an entry in the Temporären Gärten art manifestation in Aachen, Germany this summer. studioTX, the art and engineering firm responsible for the gnome balloons, started out with the aim to show a different take on yard art - generally a strange kitschy subculture with things like gnomes, trolls, ostriches and worse - and planned to use mylar in its gnome balloons until discovering the harm the film can cause to wild life. So a switch was made to NatureWorks biodegradable helium-fillable film with a chalk-based paint on the inside for decoration. Once placed in a yard (using grass clumps as ballast) the balloon decomposes in 4 to 6 weeks and should yield a burst of meadow flowers next summer.
Instead of just using embedded seeds as a novelty, why aren't packagers to do their part in reducing waste. It comes down to a simple cost and convention equation. Any serious home recycler and composter after a while realizes their only trash is plastic packaging. If more of it was natural plastic embedded with seeds the chance to beautify our surroundings would grow exponentially. At the very least we should see more PLA balloons at green parties and other gatherings. Via ::Inhabitatand Moonen Packaging (Dutch only)
Read more on embedded seeds:
Bloomin' Flower Cards
Card-to-Cradle
Sharpen, Write, Plant, Repeat: "Seed of a Pen" by Zeev Zohar
Solar Cheaper than Coal: First Solar's Cadmium Telluride Breakthrough
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New York Times on Energy Independence
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Please don't abuse "exponentially" when you mean "lots". It has a precise meaning in science, and many processes of interest have this rate of change, so I had to go back and re-read and decide if you really meant what you actually wrote.
I don't think you did.
Rgds
Damon
Or, if you can grow edible mushrooms in your yard, take the caps and put spore prints all over your car.
As you drive, you'll be spreading the spore to the four winds.
Bonus: mushroom mycelium is a lot more efficient in biodegrading compost
Seeds!!!!! what kinds of seeds were they planning to put in these things. I hope they are going to do the research and change up the seed mixture for ever region so they are not introducing non-native invasive plants. currently many of our wildflower seeds mixes contain non-native invasive plants. No need to make thins worse by filling gnomes with helium and seeds and letting them go.
Can't approve an environmental act if they decide to use helium which is itself becoming an endangered element.