Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade to Recycle Helium
Today marks the 82nd annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City. It also marks the second year that the helium used in some of the over-sized balloons will be recovered and recycled.
Linde North America is the provider of the helium used to inflate and lift the giant balloons, which include the likes of Snoopy, Buzz Lightyear, Kermit the Frog and Shrek. They will also lead the recovery and recycling effort of the helium from the balloons, focusing on the 31 medium-sized novelty balloons in the parade.
Steve Penn, head of global helium for Linde, said, “Linde’s recovery and recycling efforts will positively impact the conservation of helium. Macy’s has worked hand in hand with us to reduce the total amount of helium it uses year-on-year. Now Linde is applying helium recovery principles used successfully in other industries and in last year’s Parade to increase the amount of helium that can be recaptured for recycling.”
Why it’s a Big Deal
Helium is a limited and increasingly scare resource. It is produced very slowly through a process of decaying uranium and thorium. Currently, only about 5 percent of the world’s helium is being recycled.
In previous years, the helium from the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons was released into the air. This year, a team from Linde and Macy’s will use instruments to collect the helium directly from the balloons and recycle it for future use. Today’s recycling effort represents a major landmark for helium recycling worldwide.
A Little Trivia…
Helium supplies were once so scarce that the 1958 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons were filled with regular air and placed on trucks for the procession.
Today’s parade will consist of thirteen giant balloons, thirty-one novely balloons, twenty-eight floats, ten bands and twenty-five clown groups, as well as singers and celebrities to entertain the crowd.
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YogaforCynics
posted on November 27th, 2008 at 9:45 am
Uranium???!!!
Wow–I guess helium was just another thing I’ve taken for granted, never guessing it could be scarce or gotten through a process that could be detrimental to the environment….
Great article.
Michael
posted on November 27th, 2008 at 11:18 am
Helium is also a potent greenhouse gas – THAT is the major reason why they are recycling it. Releasing helium increases global heating.
John McGill
posted on November 27th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
How is it that the recycling of helium is an environmental issue? Helium is an inert gas, and it is so scarce on Earth that it is hard to see how releasing it into the atmosphere has any substantial environmental effect.
Bob Dayton
posted on September 3rd, 2009 at 5:20 pm
I would like to know how Linde will collect, compress, and collect the helium from the parade balloons. Perhaps someday party stores, etc. will have a system that allows you to bring back the Mylar balloons to recyle the helium before it leaks out of the balloon.
Thanks
NJ Roadie
posted on November 5th, 2009 at 8:08 pm
Not sure of the exact chemistry behind it, but from watching them, it was quite literally a big tube they stuck into the zippers at the end of the parade. Each compartment was squeezed out and the helium recaptured. I’m sure it wasn’t an exact thing, but most of it was “caught”. What happened after that I don’t know.
GANUU
posted on November 16th, 2009 at 9:32 am
Helium is not damaging to anything,,it just exists in the atmosphere, it is inert.
Releasing Helium by draining the balloons DOES NOT ADD to anything to effect global warming
as another commenter (michael) said
The U.S. Government has a hugh under ground storage area for Helium that it stockpiles
for what-ever reason
The Helium is sucked out of the balloon, then re-compressed back into pressure cylinders
for transport back to where is it made, At this point it is contaminated with other elements
It is then unloaded to be re-purified back into 99.9% and transfered
over to storage cylinders for it’s next usage