Pikachu and Spongebob Go Green

Photo courtesy of Life.

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, which draws in nearly 3.5 million onto the city sidewalks to celebrate the giving nature of the Native Americans with ginormous balloons and clowns twirling dishes and honking horns, is making an effort to go green! Helium, which allows the home-sized balloons to hover ever so gently above the city, is a gas that is secreted very slowly by decaying uranium and thorium. The global helium supply is so limited that during the 1958 parade the balloons were filled with oxygen and strapped to the tops of trucks for mobility! Macy’s, in coordination with helium-provider, Linde North America, is now recapturing a substantial portion of the 300,000 cubic feet of helium used during the grand spectacle each year, in an effort to protect this limited resource.

Photo courtesy of Johnny Jet.

This year’s Thanksgiving will mark Macy’s 84^th parade and the 4^th year of successful helium sequestration. Only about 5 percent of the world’s helium is recycled each year, but this large-scale effort will hopefully encourage further helium recapturing. Who knew Macy’s is gliding us toward a greener future?


---Annie