In a landmark lawsuit, California has accused ExxonMobil of fueling the global plastic pollution crisis while misleading the public about recycling's effectiveness.
James Bruggers reports for Inside Climate News.
In short:
- California Attorney General Rob Bonta alleges that ExxonMobil's decades-long campaign deceived the public about the recyclability of plastics, contributing to environmental harm.
- The lawsuit claims that Exxon’s "advanced recycling" is a misleading concept, as only a small percentage of plastic is actually recycled.
- Exxon argues California’s own recycling system failures are to blame and defends its chemical recycling efforts.
Key quote:
“This is the single most consequential lawsuit filed against the plastics industry for its persistent and continued lying about plastics recycling,”
— Judith Enck, president of the group Beyond Plastics
Why this matters:
California’s legal showdown with ExxonMobil represents a fundamental reckoning over the decades of plastic promises that have turned out to be empty. For years, ExxonMobil and other oil giants sold us on the fantasy that recycling would save us from drowning in plastic waste, while continuing to churn out more and more of the stuff. Read more: Chemical recycling has an economic and environmental injustice problem.
