Balloon facts

Sunshine Coast council's helium balloon law 'ridiculous'

By Bruce Atkinson Posted December 08, 2011 12:36:06  

Councillor Lew Brennan says a decision to ban the release of helium balloons on Queensland's Sunshine Coast is unenforceable.

In a last minute amendment to its new local laws, the Sunshine Coast Regional Council has voted to make it illegal to release helium balloons anywhere on the coast.

Councillor Brennan says it is ridiculous, as council has no intention to police it or fine people.

"Which councillor's going to stand behind the local laws officer and fine some child for releasing a half a dozen balloons at a party," he said.

"It's ridiculous and it just smacks of green mandate politics where they want to be seen to be green and putting laws in place to be seen to be green, when in fact there's far more important jobs for us to be focussed on in regard to improving the environment."

NOTE: It may be coincidental but this story seems to form part of a wider issue in Queensland, namely disputation between the State government and local or regional councils. The ABC in Queensland is runnign simultaneously the following story: 

The Local Government Association of Queensland (LGAQ) says councils want to rebuild their relationship with the State Government.

The LGAQ has released a wish list of changes it wants to see after the Queensland election next year.

It includes more local input in infrastructure and the development of a population strategy to deal with expected growth.

LGAQ president Paul Bell says they want better interaction with the State Government.

'That means a strong, well-built, well-structured relationship between local government and State Government," he said.

"That's faded in many ways over the last number of years."

He says there should also be a $150 million a year fund to help councils in mining regions cope with rapid growth.

Apparently there is $150 m worth of tension between the two levels of government as the State election approaches.  It might appear that balloons have been drawn into a dispute that has very little to do with balloons and balloon releases.

Latex balloons

Latex rubber is a natural product, from the Hevea (or para) tree.

It is NOT a plastic.  It is NOT a synthetic made from petrochemicals in a laboratory.

Neither is it made from the sap of the tree.  The latex ducts run closer to the surface of the tree than the sap ducts.

The fluid latex is harvested traditionally.  Rural workers tap the tree and gather the latex in a cup: they take only sustainable amounts: they cannot afford to sacrifice the trees.

The sale of latex has been a significant contributor to the rural economies of the wet tropics - south and south-east Asia (particularly Thailand, India's southern province of Kerala, and Malaysia) for many generations. 

Sri Lanka relies even more on latex because its national economy is at a less developed level.

The Singapore Commodity Market, SICOM, is the world's most significant rubber trading exchange, and the RSS3 Contract is the principal means of trading:

A contract under the RSS3 specification is for 5 tonnes.

The standard unit of rubber for delivery is 20 tonnes.  Rubber is delivered in multiples of 20 tonnes.

The price is quoted in US cents per kilogram.

It is an indicator of the sustainability of planting and harvesting practices that latex rubber is traded on SICOM 12 months of the year. The chart below shows the value of rubber trades on SICOM for the past 100 days:

 

Trees are rarely tapped more often than once every two days.

A tapper starts his or her trek around the plantation before dawn. 

At each tree, the skilled tapper uses a sharp knife to shave the thinnest possible layer from the intact section of bark. The cut must be neither too deep, nor too thick. Either will reduce the productive life of the tree. 

This starts the latex flowing, and the tapper leaves leaves a little cup underneath the cut.

 

In ordinary circumstances, this latex will normally coagulate into a lump in the bottom of the cup, called 'cup lump.' If the plantation manager wants to make latex, then the tapper must add a stabilising agent to the cup. Usually this is ammonia, which prevents the latex from coagulating.

The tapper returns a few hours later and collects the material in the cup -- either cup lump or latex. The double round trip usually finishes at about 2 pm.

Latex comprises about 10 per cent of all natural rubber produced.  

Solid rubber, used for motor vehicle and aircraft tyres, requires considerable heating and is usually the basis of a compound designed to meet highly specific requirements depending on the end user's needs.   

Latex is never heated.

For marketing, the latex is put in a centrifuge to remove water and increase its rubber content.  The resulting concentrate is about 60 per cent rubber and 40 per center other materials, mostly water and plant protein.

Latex has many uses.  Surgical gloves made of latex are used to maintain a sterile environment - used once, and then thrown away: latex is inexpensive and can be made into a glove easily.  Latex is widely considered the best prophylactic, largely because it is a natural product but also because it can be fitted securely.

Perhaps its most unusual and most famous use was in the film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, where the actors Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt were "aged" by the application of latex.

Benjamin Button makeup http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRhJHE0eeNs

Rubber tapping in Kerala http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=63145623

The green rubber factory http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KB5wdmbcI3o&feature=related

The elastic forest http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIhQi-bgbu8&feature=related