One of the latest reports issued by the United Nations suggests that the Biodegradable plastic is actually a deceptive term. The report has revealed that the biodegradable plastic found in plastic bags and bottle, generally degrades at a very slow rate.

Tree Hugger reported that in order to degrade and break down properly, the biodegradable plastic usually requires extremely high temperature. The UN report has brought forward the ugly truth that the ocean is actually an ideal place for the biodegradable plastic to survive without any time limit. It is also reported that this inability to break down by itself in the ocean is causing a high level of water pollution.

To add on to the recent report, one of the UN Environment program scientists, Jennifer McGlade, said that the plastics referred to as biodegradable usually break down at 50 degree Celsius or 122 degrees Fahrenheit. Jennifer revealed that such biodegradable plastic does not degrade in the ocean as it just simply sinks to the bottom of the ocean, far away from UV rays exposure, reported The Guardian.

Further, Ohio State professor, Frederick Michel, also revealed the fact that polyethylene is known to biodegrade around 0.1% in almost 10 years, when in a soil environment. Michel said that this biodegradable plastic, if not properly disposed of, can cause havoc in the ocean's ecosystems.

With all the talks about the harmful effects of biodegradable plastic, News Everyday reported Professor Frederick's solution to this continuously mortifying situation. He said that biodegradable termed plastic should be manufactured in such a way that it completely degrades to CO2 in a particular time frame in line with the waste management process.

Moreover, the UN report also has suggested that in order to curb the biodegradable plastic pollution, an improvement in the waste management and collection practices is the need of the hour.

The research on biodegradable plastic was carried out by few of the world's top scientists and was funded by the UN, reported Nature World News. The findings on the biodegradable plastic have been noted down in the 179-page report, which also covers information on the plastic pollution in all the world's oceans, including the reasons and effects of plastic pollution, and the probable solutions to handle the floating biodegradable plastic.