News & Analysis
September 23, 2024
In a landmark lawsuit, California is suing ExxonMobil for deceiving the public about plastic recycling for decades and, as a result, helping to cause and exacerbate the plastic waste crisis. The lawsuit, filed by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, is the first in the nation to name Exxon — the world’s largest producer of single-use plastic polymers — as a major architect of the plastic waste crisis.
“ExxonMobil not only promotes and produces the largest amount of plastic that becomes plastic waste in California,” Bonta’s lawsuit argues, “it has also deceived Californians for almost half a century by promising that recycling could and would solve the ever-growing plastic waste crisis.”
The lawsuit argues that Exxon’s misleading statements about the recyclability of plastics deceived consumers, and it seeks to compel Exxon to stop lying about the recyclability of its products, as well as establish an abatement fund, require Exxon to give up the profits that it obtained through lying about its products, and other civil penalties.
Earlier this year, the Center for Climate Integrity released a report on “The Fraud of Plastic Recycling,” highlighting never-before-published industry sources showing how Exxon and other fossil fuel and petrochemical companies have deceptively promoted recycling, including through the promotion of so-called “advanced recycling.” California’s complaint includes evidence unveiled in CCI’s report, including a 1980s industry report acknowledging that "recycling cannot be considered a permanent solid waste solution [to plastics], as it merely prolongs the time until an item is disposed of."
A coalition of nonprofits also separately sued Exxon in San Francisco County Superior Court for its plastic deception this week, citing evidence from CCI’s report and dozens of other examples of industry deception.
These lawsuits over plastic deception are just the latest legal challenges Exxon is facing over its campaigns of deception. The oil giant is facing separate lawsuits from 10 attorneys general — including Bonta — and dozens of local and tribal governments for deceiving the public about the role of its fossil fuel products in causing climate change. An August poll from Data for Progress and CCI found that 70 percent of U.S. voters — including 54 percent of Republicans — support legal action against the fossil fuel and plastics industries for deceiving the public about the viability of plastic recycling.
“ExxonMobil is now facing long-overdue legal accountability for its role in causing and lying about the two greatest environmental catastrophes facing humanity: the climate crisis and the plastic waste crisis,” CCI President Richard Wiles said. “Just as Exxon knew and lied about how its fossil fuel products cause climate change, the polluter has also known and lied for decades about the reality that its plastic products could never be recycled at scale. From climate to plastics, Exxon’s entire business model is based on lying to the public about the harms its products cause.”
