California's attorney general sued Exxon Mobil on Monday, accusing the company of waging a “campaign of deception” over decades to mislead consumers into believing recycling was a viable solution for plastic waste. The lawsuit, filed in California Superior Court in San Francisco, alleges that ExxonMobil promotes recycling as a “cure for plastic waste,” even though the company knows that plastic is difficult to eradicate and that some recycling methods cannot handle much of the waste produced.
It further accuses Exxon of violating state regulations on water pollution and misleading marketing.
“ExxonMobil knew that 95 percent of the plastic in the blue bin would be incinerated, enter the environment or end up in a landfill,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in an interview. “They knew , but they lied.”
ExxonMobil said in a statement in response to the lawsuit that “advanced recycling” is effective and that the company has used the method to prevent more than 60 million pounds of plastic waste from entering landfills. this term refers to chemical or thermal recovery: The process of breaking down plastic into its basic chemical components for reuse.
“California officials have known for decades that their recycling system was inefficient. They failed to take action, and now they are trying to blame others. Instead of suing us, they could have worked with us to fix the problem,” ExxonMobil said.
The lawsuit represents a new avenue in the legal fight to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for pollution and their aggressive marketing practices. In other lawsuits, state attorneys general and environmental nonprofits are suing oil and gas giants over carbon pollution and its effects. Role in climate change and extreme weather.
The new lawsuit, which the attorney general's office said is the first of its kind, will put the life cycle of plastics and the potential harm of microplastics center stage.
The state is demanding a jury trial and seeking to have Exxon hand over a portion of its profits and other civil penalties.
“We want them to put billions of dollars into an emissions reduction fund,” Bonta said.
Environmental groups cheered the news.
“This is a big deal. I hope this opens the floodgates,” said Judith Enck, president of Beyond Plastics, a nationwide initiative to end plastic pollution.
Enke said that previous lawsuits have been against individual plastic products or companies selling these products, but “this is the first time a lawsuit has been launched upstream in an effort to hold production companies accountable.”
She added that she was skeptical about the benefits of advanced recycling because the process often turns plastic into Transportation fuel.
Bonta agreed, calling the process a “farce” and “another version of the same lie.”
ExxonMobil is the world's largest producer of polymers used to make single-use plastics derived from fossil fuels, the lawsuit said.
According to the report, Exxon Mobil and its predecessor company ExxonMobil have promoted single-use plastics through industry groups, advertising campaigns and other marketing activities for decades, and even once used the Boy Scouts to sell plastic kitchen bags and garbage bags as a fundraiser. .
The lawsuit alleges that these industry groups encourage Americans to pursue a “throwaway lifestyle” and downplay public concerns about the ecological risks of plastics. In 1973, industry leaders labeled those concerned about plastic waste “the enemy,” according to internal communications from the Plastics Industry Association, now known as the Plastics Industry Association, cited in the lawsuit.
As public concerns grew, ExxonMobil and its predecessors pushed mechanical recycling as a solution, despite warnings within the industry that it was not a permanent or feasible solution.
“They had a problem with plastic pollution — people were concerned about it — and they had internal discussions and they said, ‘What do we do?’” Bonta said. “Their answer was to 'promote recycling' even though they knew it was not something that could be used and could not be reliably scaled technically or economically.”
One example cited in the lawsuit: Exxon Mobil and other petrochemical groups formed the Council for Solid Waste Solutions in 1988, which took out a 12-page ad in Time magazine urging recycling.
The lawsuit claims that in the United States, the plastic recycling rate has never exceeded 9%.
It also called microplastic pollution a “crisis”.
scientists have Microplastics found in Antarctica's new snownear the summit of Mount Everest, and in the Mariana Trench—a testament to how common this type of pollution has become.
Some scientists say microplastics can have harmful effects on the environment and human health. Early research suggests they may cause inflammation and cell damage in the body.
one research published stated earlier this year People with microplastics Nanoplastics in plaque lining the main blood vessels in the neck may increase the risk of heart attack, stroke or death.
still, More research is needed to understand the risks microplastics may pose to human health.
Leehi Yona, an assistant professor of environmental and climate law at Cornell University, said the lawsuit opens up a second front in holding fossil fuel companies accountable.
“We've seen quite a few lawsuits based on evidence of what these companies knew about climate change and how they deceived the public,” Yuna said. (California is one of many states and territories.) Prosecution of these companies for their contribution to climate change.)
But she said the new lawsuit extends that approach to claims involving plastics.
“In my opinion, these lawsuits are important not only for their legal merit, but also to draw attention to the misrepresentations made by some of these companies, just like the lawsuits against the tobacco industry regarding their misrepresentation of the relationship between smoking and lungs. The connections are the same.
Several nonprofit groups, including the Sierra Club, the Surfrider Foundation, Heal the Bay and Baykeeper, also jointly filed a separate lawsuit against Exxon Mobil in San Francisco on Monday. The attorney general's office and the nonprofit are coordinating their legal approaches, and both lawsuits make similar claims.