# Do they reuse the helium in the Thanksgiving parade balloons? If not, why not?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-reuse-the-helium-in-the-thanksgiving-parade-balloons-if-not-why-not/139221>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 27, 2002, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-reuse-the-helium-in-the-thanksgiving-parade-balloons-if-not-why-not/139221 "2002-11-27T22:22:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![stuyguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@stuyguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stuyguy)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2002, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-reuse-the-helium-in-the-thanksgiving-parade-balloons-if-not-why-not/139221/1 "2002-11-27T22:22:18Z")

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I suspect that they don’t. But why not?

I would imagine that it costs a pretty penny to fill those balloons with fresh helium every year. I would also imagine that very little of the “used” helium gets contaminated during the pre-parade, parade and post-parade activities. I would further imagine that it would not be terribly difficult to suck the “used” helium out of the balloons and back into the tanks.

Am I full of hot air? [grinny here]

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**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2002, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-reuse-the-helium-in-the-thanksgiving-parade-balloons-if-not-why-not/139221/2 "2002-11-27T22:29:52Z")

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They probably don’t, because helium is so cheap.  
The problem with helium s that once you let it go, it’s gone. You don’t get it back. It’s a inert gas, lighter than anything (except hydrogen) and it ges to the top of the atmosphere. Eventually it gets a kick from solar particles and flies off into space. Helium is created at _very_ slow rate via radioactive decay, and gets trapped atop oil deposits in imermeable rock. We’re tapping into this and releasing an ages-old supply in a relatively short time. Eventually, it’ll be gone.

And that’s not good, because helium is on of the few things you can use for cooling to ultra-low temperatures. It’s a helluva lot safer than hydrogen. And you can’t build a dilution refrigerator using hydrogen.

Some time ago, scientists got concerned about this, and built helium–recovery systems to trap th helium used in experiments. Our lab in Utah had one. But t hadn’ been used in years. I think that helium fell n price, and it just wasn’t worth it.  
I suspect that supercomputers crammed nto tiny chips are going to brin a high demand fo helium, one of these days. W’ll see what hapens.

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**Author:** ![DarrenS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@DarrenS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarrenS)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2002, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-reuse-the-helium-in-the-thanksgiving-parade-balloons-if-not-why-not/139221/3 "2002-11-27T22:33:29Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> We’re tapping into this and releasing an ages-old supply in a relatively short time. Eventually, it’ll be gone.

The irony…the 2nd most common element in the universe, and we run out of it!