Children's balloons use recycled or low grade helium which can't be used for other more worthy purposes. It's not really a waste.
LOL!
It's not 100% helium, it's mixed with air to make it cheaper, but the idea that they couldn't separate it out is silly.
Also: What's "low grade" helium? Helium is an element, it's one of the few elements that can't be contaminated with anything - it has no stable compounds.
Separation? Medical/scientific helium is usually liquid. Helium liquifies at a different temperature than air so separation of helium from air would a trivial/automatic part of the cooling process (throw away everything that forms a puddle above -270 degrees K).