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California files a lawsuit against Exxon Mobil, accusing the gas giant of deceiving the public about plastic recycling and worsening pollution.
California has filed a lawsuit against Exxon Mobil, accusing the gas giant of misleading the public for decades over the effectiveness of recycling plastic the company produces. [emphasis, links added]
State Attorney General Rob Bonta revealed on Monday that his office had filed a lawsuit against Exxon Mobil following a two-year investigation into the company.
The 147-page complaint claims that Exxon Mobil has been deceiving consumers for at least 50 years in a campaign the state claims “caused and exacerbated the global plastics pollution crisis.”
In a Sunday release, Bonta’s office accused Exxon Mobil of making recycling promises that would tackle the amount of plastic waste the company produces.
“Plastics are everywhere, from the deepest parts of our oceans, the highest peaks on earth, and even in our bodies, causing irreversible damage—in ways known and unknown—to our environment and potentially our health,” Bonta said in a statement.
“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.”
In the suit, Bonta targets Exxon Mobil’s use of “advanced recycling,” also known as chemical recycling.
The attorney general claimed that this process resulted in 92% of plastic waste not becoming recycled, with the small number of plastics produced through the technology making up less than one percent of the company’s total plastic production capacity.
The suit also accused the company of announcing unachievable recycling targets while allegedly falsely promoting all plastics as recyclable.
For example, the complaint accused Exxon Mobil of using the “chasing arrow” symbol on its products, which has long been associated with recycling. As a result, the attorney general’s office claims the allegedly misleading practices caused consumers to purchase more single-use plastic than they would have otherwise.
“ExxonMobil lied to further its record-breaking profits at the expense of our planet and possibly jeopardizing our health,” Bonta said.
“Today’s lawsuit shows the fullest picture to date of ExxonMobil’s decades-long deception, and we are asking the court to hold ExxonMobil fully accountable for its role in actively creating and exacerbating the plastics pollution crisis through its campaign of deception.”
The lawsuit was filed in San Francisco County Superior Court and specifically accuses Exxon Mobil of violating state nuisance, natural resources, water pollution, false advertisement, and unfair competition laws in the state.
According to the release, Bonta is seeking nuisance abatement, disgorgement, civil penalties, and an injunction to protect the state from additional pollution and prevent Exxon Mobil from “making any further false or misleading statements about plastics recycling and its plastics operations.”
Exxon Mobil has since blasted the lawsuit, telling Reuters, “Suing people makes headlines but doesn’t solve the plastic waste problem. Advanced recycling is a real solution.”
An ExxonMobil spokesperson told the Washington Examiner:
“For decades, California officials have known their recycling system isn’t effective. They failed to act, and now they seek to blame others. Instead of suing us, they could have worked with us to fix the problem and keep plastic out of landfills.
“The first step would be to acknowledge what their counterparts across the U.S. know: advanced recycling works. 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.”
Read rest at Washington Examiner
The post California Takes Exxon Mobil To Court, This Time Over Plastic Recycling appeared first on Energy News Beat.
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