<Anchor>

You've probably seen helium balloons flying high into the sky these days. It's nice to see it, and someday it turns out that the balloons fall back to land and sea, seriously polluting the environment.

This is reporter Park Chan-bum.

<Reporter>

The new year of 2020.

Thousands of balloons fly into the sky.

Cheering pops out in splendid sights, but the organizers don't care what happens to these balloons.

[The official of the balloon flying event: I banned the use of plastics and disposables, but I did not think about flying the balloon yet.]

In the new year, there are 72 confirmed balloon flying events nationwide.

Plastic balloons take up to hundreds of years to break down after they land or land.

In the meantime, when algae or marine life is eaten, it is fatal and when it is exposed to sunlight, it breaks down into fine plastics, which causes disturbance of ecosystems for a long time.

[Shim, Won-Joon / National Institute of Marine Science & Technology, Korea: We can't distinguish and can't eat, and the rest of the process that spreads through the ecosystem is almost the same as other fine plastics.]

Because of this, some cities in the United States, United Kingdom, and the Netherlands have banned flying balloons.

[Soo-Yul Hong / Director of the Institute for Resource and Circulation Socio-Economics: (Balloon) When it goes up to the sky, it's common sense that it bursts into garbage. It is intentional illegal dumping.

There is a high voice now that the ballooning event, which has been repeated because of ignorance or because of practice, is now being shut down.

(Video Editing: Park Ji-in, VJ: So Young Shin, Screen provided: Ji Hee, Chief JH_Manager