Latex balloons
Why latex balloons are the best choice while at the same time being the worst.
Latex balloons are the very top quality balloons that you can desire,. Resistant, light and very flexible. But as with all things there must be a downside.
The problem with latex balloons is well... the latex. Latex is made from natural rubber, a rather expensive commodity. It would be almost impossible to imagine the world today without rubber. Think of all those car tires and you will get the picture. The problem is that as with all natural resources rubber is nearing its breaking. Yes rubber is a renewable source, but not very. Those rubber trees can produce that much, the world needs much more. There is also another problem, rubber trees are mostly grown in third world countries. This means that the workforce is probably poorly paid and that revolutions are bound to happen at every step. There is a movement going now initially derived from the anti-globalization movement which advocates for better deals for these countries. The main result was the fair trade agreement. The problem is that you can never truly be sure of where the latex is coming from and I haven't seen yet any producer to show off this issue. In other industries this is not the case, a good example would the coffee industry, but latex production is a far cry from this model.
Of course there are alternatives to latex balloons as governments everywhere tried to reduce the amount of dependence to these countries. The problem is that the alternative they found is not exactly appealing. To date synthetic latex is produced from oil or natural gases. Natural rubber definitely seems a better alternative.
There is a third way though. Rubber can be recycled. This is actually the best way of reducing the strain on the rubber industry, while still not attempting to put the genie back in the bottle.. The best answer available relies probably in getting the most out of the existing resources, while trying not to do an excessive harvesting.
As with all items made of latex, latex balloons do have their controversy around them, but in the end what any buyer wants is a quality balloon, if in the process you will make the world a better place it is fine, if you can't, well at least you tried. So next time when you decide to buy some latex balloons, please make the environmentalist issue the critical one. This way you will force the companies to adopt better policies.