California says ExxonMobile lied about recyclability of plastics
Michael Gennaro
SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit against ExxonMobil on Monday morning accusing the big oil company of misleading the public for 50 years about the efficacy of plastic recycling.
In the 147-page complaint filed in San Francisco Superior Court, Bonta claims for the past 50 years, ExxonMobil has used deceptive marketing and misleading public statements to promote recycling as an effective solution for plastic pollution, even though the oil giant knows most plastics are not recycled and cannot be recycled.
Bonta also accused ExxonMobil of upholding the “myth” of plastic recycling to this day.
The lawsuit centers on the claim that ExxonMobil's messaging led consumers to purchase and use more single-use plastic than they otherwise would have. Though most consumers know ExxonMobil as an oil company, it is also the world’s largest producer of polymers, materials made from fossil fuels that are used in single-use plastics like utensils and packaging.
“In the past decade, as we've been drowning in plastic waste, ExxonMobil has increased its production capacity by roughly 80%. They are bullish on the plastics market. Our coastline, oceans, rivers and bays are swimming with plastic pollution that costs California municipalities, California taxpayers, over a billion dollars each year. While Californians are stuck to foot that bill, just last year, in one year, ExxonMobil raked in $36 billion,” Bonta said in a virtual press conference announcing the suit.
Bonta said that since the 1970s ExxonMobil had hid behind industry trade and front groups with environmentally friendly names to peddle the deception that plastic is recyclable, flooding the market with ads that hide the truth about plastic’s recyclability.
“It's time for ExxonMobil to tell the truth. It's time to hold ExxonMobil accountable for its role in creating and exacerbating the plastic pollution crisis. It's time for ExxonMobil to pay for the damages its lies have cost,” Bonta said.
The state does not seek traditional damages, but instead remedies such as an abatement fund to the tune of billions of dollars, Bonta said. That abatement fund could consist of reeducation efforts to tell the public the truth about plastic recyclability through advertisements and similar work, Bonta said. The state also seeks disgorgement of profits and civil penalties under California’s Unfair Competition Law.
Monday’s suit is the first in the country to take on a fossil fuel company for its messaging around plastic recycling, and comes one day after California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law banning all plastic bags in California grocery stores starting in 2026.
Monday’s filing caps a state Department of Justice investigation that lasted over two years that probed the role of fossil fuel and petrochemical companies in the global plastics waste crisis.
The subpoenas uncovered never-before-seen documents, according to a press release announcing the lawsuit.
Four environmental organizations, Sierra Club, Surfrider Foundation, Heal the Bay and Baykeeper, separately filed their own lawsuit raising similar issues regarding ExxonMobil’s role in causing the global plastics pollution crisis on Monday as well. Bonta said that he hopes the two suits are related by a judge and move along a similar path procedurally.
Neil McCarthy, counsel for the environmental plaintiffs, said ExxonMobil had multiple opportunities to tell the truth but chose to chase record profits instead.
Allison Chin, Sierra Club president, said during the press conference Monday that by 2050 there will be more plastic waste in the world’s ocean than fish by mass, and that ExxonMobil generates 6 million metric tons of plastic waste annually — the equivalent of 300,000 garbage trucks.
“Our complaint alleges that, like the tobacco industry before them, Exxon has run a decades-long campaign to hide the true risk of plastic from the public. Exxon profited by claiming plastics are safe, disposable and recyclable. That wasn't true. The truth is that plastics are largely not recyclable, yet Exxon perpetuated the myth of recyclability to keep consumers buying more,” Chin said. “Meanwhile, our sea life, our beaches and our environment have been drowning in a constant stream of plastic waste, and our children are ingesting microplastics, the consequences of which scientists are still unsure of.”
ExxonMobil did not immediately respond to requests for comment.