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.
#BREAKING: We’re suing ExxonMobil for a decades-long campaign of deception that perpetuated the plastic waste and pollution crisis.
— Rob Bonta (@AGRobBonta) September 23, 2024
ExxonMobil peddled #RecyclingLies to further its recording-breaking profits at the expense of our planet.
We’re holding ExxonMobil accountable. pic.twitter.com/ekhMGY3AOE
"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 attorney general of California, Rob Bonta, sued Exxon Mobil on Monday alleging that the oil giant carried out a “decades-long campaign of deception” that overhyped the promise of recycling and spawned a plastic pollution crisis. https://t.co/zgtifpiegz pic.twitter.com/X1qskv7Eim
— The New York Times (@nytimes) September 23, 2024
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)
