By Valerie Volcovici
NEW YORK (Reuters) – California has filed a lawsuit against oil giant Exxon Mobil over its alleged role in global plastic waste pollution, its attorney general announced on Monday.
Speaking at an event during Climate Week in New York City, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the state sued Exxon after concluding a nearly two-year investigation that he said showed Exxon was deliberately misleading the public about the limitations of recycling.
The investigation mirrors California’s previous probes into the oil industry’s alleged efforts to mislead the public about climate change.
Bonta said his office specifically wants information on Exxon’s promotion of its “advanced recycling” technology, which uses a process called pyrolysis to turn hard-to-recycle plastic into fuel. He had said the technology’s slow progress was a sign of Exxon’s ongoing deception.
“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,” Bonta said in a statement.