Mylar isn’t easily recycled. For every metallic balloon that brings ‘joy and happiness’ to a birthday or significant event, almost 100% of the time it ends up as a disaster for our oceans or landfills. Mylar is plastic and NOT biodegradable.
Most local recycling centers don’t have the ability or choose not to recycle Mylar for two main reasons. First, this flimsy-type of plastic easily gets caught in the recycling machinery, leading to all sorts of problems including disruption of recycling operations. Second, Mylar balloons are “multi-layered,” meaning that the plastic layer is fused with a metallic foil layer. Waste management centers have a very difficult time separating the two layers, therefore making the Mylar material impossible or too expensive to recycle.