California sues Exxon over global plastic pollution By Reuters

By Valerie Volcovici

NEW YORK (Reuters) – California has filed a lawsuit against the oil giant ExxonMobil (NYSE: ) over its alleged role in global plastic waste pollution, its attorney general announced Monday.

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 the oil industry’s alleged efforts to mislead the public about climate change.

Bonta said his office specifically wants 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 seeking 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.

“Taking people to court 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 trial and said it drew attention to the shortcomings of mechanical and advanced recycling.

Christy Leavitt, Oceana’s plastics campaign director, said the lawsuit would “hold the industry to account and debunk the plastics recycling narrative that holds us back from real solutions”.