The California attorney general announced a lawsuit against ExxonMobil on Monday, alleging it engaged in a decadeslong deception about whether the plastics it manufactured can be recycled.
“Plastics are everywhere, from the deepest parts of our oceans, the highest peaks on earth, and even in our bodies, causing irreversible damage — in ways known and unknown — to our environment and potentially our health,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said Monday in a news release. “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. ExxonMobil lied to further its recording-breaking profits at the expense of our planet and possibly jeopardizing our health.”
Bonta said in April that he would investigate fossil fuel and petrochemical companies for their role in causing the plastic pollution crisis, but Monday’s action was solely against Exxon. Bonta said in a news conference Monday announcing the suit that there may be others added, but Exxon was the largest producer of the building blocks of plastics.