California’s legal professional normal is suing ExxonMobil, alleging the oil large engaged in a “decades-long campaign of deception” concerning the effectiveness of plastics recycling.
In the civil lawsuit filed on Monday, Attorney General Rob Bonta accused Exxon of contributing to a “deluge” of plastic air pollution, whereas telling Californians that recycling was a repair.
“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, Exxon blamed California for an inefficient recycling programme.
“For many years, California officers have identified their recycling system is not efficient. They didn’t act, and now they search accountable others. Instead of suing us, they might have labored with us to repair the issue and preserve plastic out of landfills,” the company said in a statement.
An Exxon spokesperson added that the company had processed more than 60 million pounds (27 million kilograms) of plastic waste into usable raw materials, “preserving it out of landfills”.
Bonta’s office said the case marks the first time US officials have attempted to hold a gas or oil company accountable for deceptive claims about plastics recycling.
California is seeking an unspecified amount of money that Bonta said could come to as much as “multiple billions of dollars”.
“ExxonMobil lied to additional its [record]-breaking earnings on the expense of our planet and probably jeopardising our well being,” he said.
Last year, Bonta sued ExxonMobil as well as four other oil giants for compensation over climate change damages.
The most recent lawsuit, filed in San Francisco County Superior Court, comes after a nearly two-year investigation by Bonta’s office into the fossil fuel and petrochemical industries and global plastics pollution.
ExxonMobil is the world’s largest producer of resins used for single-use plastics, according a report by Australia’s Minderoo Foundation.
Bonta alleged that, through its marketing, the company was promoting its “superior recycling” programme to the public as a solution to plastic waste, while knowing that the company would “by no means be capable to course of greater than a tiny fraction of the plastic waste it produces”.
The 147-page suit alleges that nearly all of plastic waste processed by the company has been turned into fuel instead of recycled plastic.
The deception violated state nuisance, natural resources, water pollution, false advertisement and unfair competition laws, Bonta said.
The world produces over 400 million tons of plastic every year, however solely 9% is recycled, in response to a 2022 report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp8elg6ezlko