According to a new lawsuit filed by the state of California, ExxonMobil has misled consumers for years by spreading a “myth” about plastics recycling.
ExxonMobil is the world's largest producer of single-use plastics that become waste, according to the state's attorney general's office. To get people to buy products made from single-use plastics, the lawsuit says, ExxonMobil “deceived Californians for nearly half a century by promising that recycling could and would solve the ever-growing plastic waste crisis,” the lawsuit says.
“It was clear to them that this was not possible.”
Plastic is difficult to reuse, which is why very little of it is recycled. Experts warn that recycling as a cure-all for plastic waste may actually lead to even more of it ending up in the trash. Now the state of California wants to hold the industry responsible for the plastic pollution that has accumulated in the environment, in animals, and even in people's bodies.
“For decades, ExxonMobil has deceived the public to convince us that plastic recycling could solve the plastic waste and pollution crisis, even though they knew full well that it could not,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a press release yesterday.
The attorney general's office launched an investigation into the petrochemical industry's role in creating a “plastic pollution crisis” in 2022. It says it uncovered new documents over the past two years that prompted the state to file suit this week. The suit alleges that ExxonMobil violated state public nuisance, natural resources, water pollution, false advertising and unfair competition laws through misleading marketing about recycling.
The state is suing for civil penalties and forfeiture, which would force the company to surrender all illegally earned profits. California also wants to set up a mitigation fund and an injunction to prevent the company from advertising plastics as recyclable, as it has done for years. The Attorney General's Office points to a 12-page ad in Time Magazine's 1989 ad about “the urgent need for recycling” as an example of the company's “deception campaign.” “Americans have entered an era in which landfilling will no longer be the primary method of garbage disposal,” the ad states.
By 2015, less than 10 percent of plastic waste was recycled. Almost 80 percent of the 6,300 million tons of plastic waste generated worldwide ended up in landfills or polluted the environment.
Even when plastic is recycled, it is usually “downcycled” because the quality of the material deteriorates with each use. For example, plastic bottles are made into fibers used in carpets instead of new plastic bottles. And appliances made from recycled plastic usually have to be reinforced with virgin plastic. It is often simply cheaper for a company to use new plastic rather than recycled materials.
More recent industry claims of “advanced” or chemical recycling are equally flawed, the attorney general claims, because most of the plastic waste that goes through that process becomes fuel. The state also claims that plastics made using ExxonMobil's “advanced recycling” technology contain so little post-consumer material that they are “actually virgin plastics.”
ExxonMobil shifted the blame in an email response to California The edge“California officials have known for decades that their recycling system is not effective. They have done nothing and are now trying to shift the blame. Instead of suing us, they could have worked with us to solve the problem and keep plastic out of landfills,” the statement said.
One selling point for plastic is that it is lightweight and easy to transport – a quality that also makes it easier for plastic to enter the environment. There, it breaks down into tiny particles called microplastics that flood the world's oceans and have been found in everything from seafood to baby poop. According to Bonta's office, about 21 million pounds of plastic waste have been collected from California's beaches and waterways since 1985.
Plastics are made from fossil fuels and are responsible for 4.5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions – more than the climate pollution caused by global shipping.
“While greenwashing is nothing new, the fossil fuel industry in particular has frequently downplayed the impact of their sector on climate change,” said Leehi Yona, a climate and environmental law professor at Cornell University, in an emailed statement. “In my view, this latest lawsuit builds on the ongoing efforts of many governments to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for the myriad ways they have misled the public about the risks of their products.”