At a press briefing during Climate Week NYC 2024, California Attorney General Rob Bonta made a significant announcement regarding the state’s legal actions against oil giant Exxon Mobil.
Bonta revealed that California and several environmental groups have filed a lawsuit accusing Exxon of misleading the public for decades about the environmental impact of plastic waste and the limitations of recycling efforts.
The lawsuit follows a nearly two-year investigation into Exxon’s alleged role in exacerbating plastic waste pollution.
The state claims that Exxon engaged in a “decades-long campaign” that deceived the public about the potential of recycling to manage plastic waste effectively.
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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.”
This new lawsuit is not an isolated action by the state of California. The Attorney General’s office has previously led investigations into the oil industry’s alleged deception related to climate change, and the state is pursuing lawsuits on that front as well.
Exxon Mobil has strongly denied the allegations. In response to the lawsuit, the company emphasized that its advanced recycling technology offers real solutions.
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As per a Reuters report, Exxon’s spokesperson has mentioned that the company has processed over 60 million pounds of plastic waste into usable raw materials through advanced recycling techniques, helping keep plastic waste out of landfills.
At the heart of California’s lawsuit is Exxon’s promotion of its “advanced recycling” technology, which includes pyrolysis, a process that breaks down hard-to-recycle plastics into fuel.
However, Bonta argued that the slow progress of this technology is further evidence of Exxon’s deceptive practices, claiming that it over-promises but under-delivers on environmental benefits.
Bonta’s office aims to secure an abatement fund and civil penalties for the harm caused by plastic pollution in California, driven in part by what they see as misleading marketing around Exxon’s recycling efforts.
Legal experts have expressed that California could face significant challenges in court.
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Exxon Mobil is one of the world’s largest producers of resins used in single-use plastics, according to a report by the Minderoo Foundation, along with consultancy groups Wood Mackenzie and the Carbon Trust. The lawsuit against Exxon Mobil comes at a critical time as global treaty negotiations on plastic pollution are set to take place in Busan, South Korea, later this year.
The issue of capping plastic production remains a point of contention. While the U.S. recently expressed support for a treaty to reduce global plastic production, Exxon and the broader petrochemical industry oppose such caps.
Environmental organizations have hailed California’s lawsuit as a significant step toward holding the plastics industry accountable.
As California’s legal battle unfolds, it remains to be seen whether the lawsuit will trigger meaningful changes in how plastics recycling and production are approached, both within the U.S. and globally.