California Attorney General Rob Bonta has filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit against ExxonMobil Corp., one of the largest producers of petroleum-based polymers, for allegedly deceiving the public about the potential for plastic recycling. The lawsuit, filed in the San Francisco County Superior Court, accuses ExxonMobil of creating an environmental blight that has cost the state billions of dollars to clean up.
“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 it wasn’t possible,” said Bonta in a statement.
The lawsuit seeks to compel ExxonMobil to end its deceptive practices and secure an abatement fund, disgorgement, and civil penalties for the harm inflicted by plastics pollution upon California’s communities and the environment.
The lawsuit alleges that ExxonMobil violated state natural resources, water pollution, false advertisement, unfair competition, and nuisance laws. Bonta is seeking injunctive relief to protect the state’s natural resources from further pollution and destruction, and to stop the company from making any further false or misleading statements about plastics recycling and its plastic operations.
The lawsuit comes after a two-and-a-half-year investigation into the fossil fuel and petrochemical industries for their alleged role in causing and exacerbating a global crisis in plastic waste pollution. ExxonMobil is one of the largest producers of the polymers used to make single-use plastics, which are made from fossil fuels. The lawsuit alleges that ExxonMobil falsely promoted all plastics as recyclable, “when in fact the vast majority of plastic products are not and likely cannot be recycled, either technically or economically.”
The announcement of the lawsuit comes as state lawmakers seek to reduce plastic pollution at its source, with the passage and implementation of SB54, the Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act. This act seeks to shift the cost of plastic pollution away from taxpayers and consumers and onto the producers and packagers.
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