In a landmark legal action, California Attorney General Rob Bonta has sued ExxonMobil, accusing the oil giant of misleading the public about the recyclability of plastics to justify continued production. This first-of-its-kind lawsuit is being hailed as a crucial step toward holding the plastics industry accountable for decades of environmental harm.
The 147-page lawsuit, filed in San Francisco County Superior Court, follows years of investigative work that many environmental advocates had hoped would culminate in legal action. Among those celebrating the move was Judith Enck, founder of Beyond Plastics and a former senior Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official. "This is the single most consequential lawsuit filed against the plastics industry for its persistent and continued lying about plastics recycling," said Enck. She praised Bonta's efforts, stating that this legal case could set a vital precedent for future corporate accountability.
Richard Wiles, president of the Center for Climate Integrity (CCI), also voiced support, noting that "Big Oil and the plastic industry's lies are at the heart of the plastic waste crisis," and that this lawsuit marks "the most important legal action to date in the global fight against plastic pollution."
ExxonMobil’s Role in Plastics Crisis
As the largest U.S.-based oil and gas producer, ExxonMobil is heavily involved in the production of polymers, which are used to create single-use plastics. The company, along with others in the petrochemical industry, has long positioned recycling as a solution to the pollution problem. However, critics argue that the industry's promotion of recycling was disingenuous, intended more to encourage the production of virgin plastics than to solve the waste crisis.
Bonta's office highlighted ExxonMobil's 1989 Time magazine "advertorial," titled "The Urgent Need to Recycle," as an example of how the company has historically promoted recycling to the public. Additionally, ExxonMobil and others in the industry advocated for the use of the "chasing arrows" recycling symbol, which often falsely suggests that a product is recyclable when, in reality, it is not—or, at the very least, not in many local recycling facilities.
Recycling’s Grim Reality
Recycling plastics presents significant technical and economic challenges. A 1986 trade group report acknowledged that "recycling cannot be considered a permanent solid waste solution [to plastics], as it merely prolongs the time until an item is disposed of." Critics of the industry say companies like ExxonMobil knew this but chose to downplay the reality in favor of profits.
Plastics recycling rates are far lower than most Americans realize. The CCI report found that while U.S. voters believe the recycling rate is around 45%, the actual rate is only 6% in the U.S. and 9% globally. The dissonance between public perception and reality underscores the effectiveness of the petrochemical industry's marketing and the need for transparency.
A New Front in Legal Battles
Bonta's lawsuit is part of a broader trend of legal action against oil and gas companies for their role in perpetuating environmental damage. While several U.S. cities and states have already filed lawsuits targeting the industry's role in climate change, this case focuses specifically on plastics and the misinformation surrounding their recyclability.
In fact, California is not the only state to take on major corporations over plastic pollution. Last year, New York sued PepsiCo for polluting the Hudson River with plastic waste. However, environmental advocates argue that Bonta's lawsuit against ExxonMobil could prove to be far more impactful.
Wiles of the CCI pointed out that the ExxonMobil lawsuit shares similarities with previous climate-related suits, noting that "from climate to plastics, Exxon's entire business model is based on lying to the public about the harms its products cause."
The Myth of “Advanced Recycling”
In recent years, the petrochemical industry has promoted "advanced recycling" or "chemical recycling" as a technological solution to the plastics problem. In theory, these methods could break down plastic waste into new, virgin-like materials. However, Bonta's office is skeptical, calling the technology "nothing more than a public relations stunt" and claiming that it is part of ExxonMobil's broader strategy to keep consumers buying single-use plastics.
According to critics, this focus on advanced recycling allows the plastics industry to continue business as usual, avoiding the more difficult work of reducing plastic production and addressing the environmental devastation caused by plastics at every stage of their lifecycle—from production to disposal.
Conclusion
California's lawsuit against ExxonMobil is a groundbreaking moment in the fight against plastic pollution and corporate deception. While the road ahead may be long, the case could set a powerful precedent for holding corporations accountable for the environmental and health impacts of their products. Environmental advocates are optimistic that this is just the beginning of a larger reckoning for the plastics industry and its decades-long history of misleading the public. The outcome of this case could significantly shape the future of plastic production and recycling in the United States and beyond.