London , England ( CNN ) -- Research teams at the Danish Golf Union have discovered it takes between 100 to 1,000 years for a golf ball to decompose naturally . A startling fact when it is also estimated 300 million balls are lost or discarded in the United States alone , every year . It seems the simple plastic golf ball is increasingly becoming a major litter problem . The scale of the dilemma was underlined recently in Scotland , where scientists -- who scoured the watery depths in a submarine hoping to discover evidence of the prehistoric Loch Ness monster -- were surprised to find hundreds of thousands of golf balls lining the bed of the loch . It is thought tourists and locals have used the loch as an alternative driving range for many years . The footage shot by underwater robotics team SeaTrepid , can be seen below . With an increasing number of golf balls discarded each year , the Danish Golf Association devised a number of tests to determine the environmental impact of golf balls on their surroundings . It was found that during decomposition , the golf balls dissolved to release a high quantity of heavy metals . Dangerous levels of zinc were found in the synthetic rubber filling used in solid core golf balls . When submerged in water , the zinc attached itself to the ground sediment and poisoned the surrounding flora and fauna . Course manager for the Danish Golf Union , Torben Kastrup Petersen , said the scale of the problem is unknown : `` There has been very little research on the environmental impact of golf balls , but it 's safe to say the indicators are not good . We are planning to collaborate with environmentalists in America to conduct more tests to fully explore the extent of the problem . '' Local government ministers in Scotland have also complained about the level of golf ball littering . UK lawmaker Patrick Harvie told CNN : `` From the moon to the bottom of Loch Ness , golf balls are humanity 's signature litter in the most inaccessible locations . '' And he 's not wrong . On February 6 , 1971 , astronaut Alan Shepherd was filmed taking a swing with a six iron on the surface of the moon . According to Shepherd , the balls flew off in the distance and landed a few kilometers away . Although the balls were left for future golfers to discover , it is believed the extreme temperatures on the surface would have dissolved the balls many moons ago . In many cases , removing a partially degraded ball from a lake or woodland area could result in further damage to the wildlife . So what is the solution ? Harvie had this advice : `` Keep your balls on the fairway or invest in a stock of biodegradable balls . ''
It takes up to 200 years for a golf ball to degrade . Golf balls are composed of a hard rubber filling . UK lawmaker says golf balls are ` ` humanities signature . ''