ExxonMobil misled public about plastic recycling, California says in suit
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A conveyer belt transports plastic at ExxonMobil's chemical recycling plant on Oct. 11, 2023, in Baytown, Texas. Photo: Sergio Flores / AFP via Getty Images
California sued ExxonMobil on Monday alleging a decades-long campaign that falsely promised recycling would effectively address plastic waste.
The big picture: The first-of-its-kind lawsuit seeks to hold the oil giant — one of the largest producers of petroleum-based polymers — accountable for misleading the public and polluting the state.
- The company produces the largest amount of single-use plastic that becomes waste and most of the plastic items collected in annual coastal cleanups in the state can be traced to ExxonMobil's polymer resins, California Attorney General Rob Bonta's office said Monday.
Zoom in: Bonta said that through the lawsuit filed in San Francisco County Superior Court Monday, he's seeking to compel ExxonMobil to end its "deceptive practices that threaten the environment and the public."
- The state is also seeking to secure an abatement fund, disgorgement and civil penalties "for the harm inflicted by plastics pollution upon California's communities."
What they're saying: "For decades, ExxonMobil has been deceiving the public to convince us that plastic recycling could solve the plastic waste and pollution crisis when they clearly knew this wasn't possible," Bonta said in a statement.
- "ExxonMobil lied to further its record-breaking profits at the expense of our planet and possibly jeopardizing our health," he added.
ExxonMobil said in an emailed statement that California officials have known for decades that "their recycling system isn't effective."
- "They failed to act, and now they seek to blame others," the company said. "Instead of suing us, they could have worked with us to fix the problem and keep plastic out of landfills."
- The first step, they added, "would be to acknowledge what their counterparts across the U.S. know: advanced recycling works" as opposed to traditional methods.
- The oil giant said it has processed more than 60 million pounds of plastic waste into usable raw materials to date.
By the numbers: About 400 million tonnes of plastic waste are produced every year and only about 9 percent globally gets recycled.
- Over the last four decades, more than 26 million pounds of trash has been collected from California beaches and waterways, approximately 81 percent of which is plastic, per the attorney general's office.
Zoom out: The suit comes a day after California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation banning all plastic shopping bags at grocery store checkouts.
Go deeper:
- Coca-Cola is largest known contributor of branded plastic waste, global study finds
- Study: More tiny plastic particles in bottled water than previously thought
Editor's note: This story has been updated with comment from ExxonMobil.
