California Sues Exxon Over Global Plastic Pollution

California and several environmental groups sued Exxon Mobil on Monday, accusing the oil giant of engaging in a decades-long campaign that has helped fuel global pollution with plastic waste.

Speaking at an event during Climate Week in New York City, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the state sued Exxon after concluding a nearly two-year investigation that showed Exxon was deliberately misleading the public about the limitations of recycling.

The investigation mirrors previous California investigations into alleged efforts by the oil industry to mislead the public about climate change, which the state is suing.

The latest case was filed in a state court in San Francisco. A coalition of environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, filed a lawsuit in that court on Monday against Exxon, making similar allegations.

Bonta, a Democrat, said his office specifically sought information about Exxon’s promotion of its “advanced recycling” technology, which uses a process called pyrolysis to turn hard-to-recycle plastic into fuel. He had said the technology’s slow progress was a sign of Exxon’s continued deception.

“Today’s trial shows the most complete picture yet of ExxonMobil’s decades-long deception, and we call on the court to hold ExxonMobil fully accountable for its role in creating and actively exacerbating the plastic pollution crisis through its campaign of deception.” Bonta said in a statement. statement.

He said he wants to end the company’s “deceptive practices” and is trying to secure an abatement fund and civil penalties for damages caused by plastic pollution in California.

Exxon pushed back against the attorney general, arguing that solutions like advanced recycling work.

“Suing people makes headlines but doesn’t solve the problem of plastic waste. Advanced recycling is a real solution,” an ExxonMobil spokesman said, adding that California has done “nothing to ‘advance’ recycling.”

Exxon is the world’s largest producer of resins used for single-use plastics, according to a report published last year by the Minderoo Foundation, with consultancies Wood Mackenzie and the Carbon Trust.

The California lawsuit comes ahead of a final round of global plastics treaty negotiations due to take place in Busan, South Korea, at the end of the year.

In those talks, countries are divided over whether the treaty should include caps on plastic production, a position opposed by Exxon and the global petrochemical industry.

The United States said last month it supports a treaty designed around reducing global plastic production.

Environmental groups praised the process. Christy Leavitt, Oceana’s plastics campaign director, said the California lawsuit will “hold the industry accountable and debunk the plastic recycling narrative that holds us back from real solutions.”

(Reporting by Volcovici; Additional reporting by Nate Raymond; Editing by Nick Zieminski)