The oil giant ExxonMobile is also in the plastics production industry, and California Attorney General Rob Bonta says they’ve been lying to the public for decades claiming that non-recyclable plastic was actually recyclable, just in order to sell more single-use plastic containers.

America’s largest oil and gas company ExxonMobile also happens to be the world’s largest producer of the resins that make up single-use plastics. But we feel just fine about using those single-use plastics, because we can just throw them in the recycling. Yet many things we throw in the recycling cannot actually be recycled, and California Attorney General Rob Bonta said Monday that less than 5% of the plastic from American recycling bins ever gets recycled into another product.

Bonta said this in a lawsuit against ExxonMobile for falsely claiming that non-recyclable plastics were recyclable, according to Reuters. And he alleges that ExxonMobile has knowingly been lying about this for years.

"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," Bonta said in a statement picked up by KGO. "ExxonMobil lied to further its record-breaking profits at the expense of our planet and possibly jeopardizing our health."

Reuters notes that Bonta also 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 heart of Bonta’s lawsuit is what Exxon calls its "advanced recycling" technology, which claims it transforms those used plastic products into fuel. Bonta’s office alleges that the technology is way behind where Exxon claims it is, and might not ever even work. But he says Exxon is continuing to promote it as effective, and in doing so duping the public into buying more plastic.

An ExxonMobil rep said in a response to Routers that "Suing people makes headlines but doesn't solve the plastic waste problem. Advanced recycling is a real solution.”

The lawsuit will likely take years to work out, or even produce a settlement. But otherwise, in the short term, Governor Gavin Newsom on Sunday signed a law banning plastic shopping bags in California food stores, and that law takes effect on January 1, 2026. Of course, the plastic bag industry has sidestepped similar bans before.

Related: Why Not Everything You Recycle In SF Is Actually Getting Recycled [SFist]

Image: Waste plastic bottles in recycle bin on blue background (Getty Images)

Anti-reduce, reuse, recycler-er Justin Clarke, AKA SF Libertarian Examiner, would like to tell you something. He would like to tell you that Newsom's alleged plan to criminalize not recycling stinks worse than Ayn Rand's rotting corpse. "Whether you think that recycling is valuable or not (I vote not)," Clarke muses, SFPD shouldn't force you to recycle in the same way "that the police shouldn’t be in charge of getting you to change your underwear." (Which, for argument's sake, they SHOULD be in charge of you changing your underwear. That, and not wearing flip flops, forbidding you to wear Drakkar Noir, and to demand you take regular showers. Really, there's no reason the barrel of a gun should not enforce these rules.)

Clarke then evokes the memory of a "classic" 1968 article by E. W. Dykes page-turningly called “Demunicipalize the Garbage Service.” Which? Makes very little sense. Fortunately, Clarke spells it out for us. Ahem:

The point he is making is a good one - my breif synopsis hardly does it justice, and it is well worth a read in it's entirity. War is a state activity. Many would say that war is the health of the state and the ultimate expression of government, the naked use of force. Stopping that use of force on an international is extremely unlikely until we recognize its immorality on a local level. Telling the government to leave you alone when they order you to suit up and kill is as important as denying the government legitimacy when they assume the right to control what you do with your trash.

Again, we really have no idea what he's talking about. But this special brand of kooky can mean only one thing: SF Libertarian Examiner is our new favorite read.

Gavin wants your fat. According to Renewable Energy Access, yesterday our dear Mayor implemented a new program that will collect fats, oil, and grease from the city restaurants free of charge.Why? So that they can be to turn into biofuel to power city-owned vehicles. The program is called SFGreasecycle. Ew. But: awesome.

Said fat and oil, when poured down the drain, "solidifies into thick layers inside drainpipes and sewer pipes, constricting water flow the way cholesterol affects blood flow in arteries." Although we recommend finer establishments holding onto their duck and bacon fats, this is a brilliant idea. Period. And local restaurants can sign-up for free service right here. So...do it now. We said now!

Image credit: the City of Longmont / "[A] sewer manhole outside of a Longmont restaurant. The sewer line has been completely filled with grease." Have a good lunch break, folks!