SAN FRANCISCO — California sued ExxonMobil Monday, alleging it deceived the public for half a century by promising that recycling would address the global plastic pollution crisis.
Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office said that even with recycling programs, less than 5% of plastic is recycled into another plastic product in the U.S. even though the items are labeled as “recyclable.” As a result, landfills and oceans are filled with plastic waste.
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Bonta said Exxon lied to the public about recycling to make money.
“Buy as much as you want. No problem. ‘It will be recycled,’ they said. Lies. They make us feel less guilty about our waste if we recycle,” said Bonta. “The end goals, drive people to buy, buy, buy and to drive Exxon profits up, up, up… It’s time Exxon pay the price for its deceit. It’s time Exxon be held accountable.”
Bonta, a Democrat, said a coalition of nonprofit environmental organizations has filed a similar lawsuit against the oil giant, which is one of the world’s largest producers of plastics. The state’s lawsuit is a separate action. Both suits allege ExxonMobil misled the public through statements and slick marketing campaigns.
Several environmental nonprofit groups say Exxon’s misleading claims have led to more plastic use and that has damaged California’s waterways.
“SF bay has been incredibly inundated with plastic pollution over the decades. Seven-trillion tiny pieces enter the Bay every single year and that is a lot of plastic pollution that we can never actually clean up because you can’t clean up microplastics out of the Bay,” said Sejal Chocksi-Chughm, executive director of SF Baykeeper.
SF Baykeeper says Exxon is a major polluter and that it needs to stop lying to the public about how much recycling actually happens.
“Exxon is trying to promote recycling and advanced recycling to the plastic problem. But we all know plastic cannot be recycled,” said Chocksi-Chughm.
Bonta’s office said in a statement that the attorney general hopes to compel ExxonMobil to end its deceptive practices and to secure an abatement fund and civil penalties for the harm.
“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.”
Exxon responded to the lawsuits Monday afternoon by issuing a statement saying in part:
“For decades, California officials have known their recycling system isn’t effective. They failed to act, and now they seek to blame others…To date, we’ve processed more than 60 million pounds of plastic waste into usable raw materials, keeping it out of landfills. We’re bringing real solutions, recycling plastic waste that couldn’t be recycled by traditional methods.”
On Sunday, California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a ban on all plastic shopping bags at supermarkets.
7 News reporter Suzanne Phan contributed to this report.
by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
