California sues Exxon Mobil over plastic recycling allegations

California Attorney General Rob Bonta has filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit targeting Exxon Mobil Corp., one of the largest producers of petroleum-derived polymers, for allegedly misleading the public about the potential of plastic recycling and creating an environmental blight that has cost the state billions of dollars to clean up.

Bonta is seeking to force the oil giant to “end its deceptive practices.” She is seeking abatement funding, restitution (a legal remedy requiring a party to forfeit profits or other gains it obtained illegally or unethically), and civil penalties “for the harm inflicted by plastic pollution on California communities and the environment.”

The lawsuit was filed Monday morning in San Francisco County Superior Court.

A separate lawsuit was also announced Monday, filed by a consortium of environmental groups including the Sierra Club, Surfrider Foundation, Heal the Bay and Baykeeper.

“For decades, Exxon Mobil has been misleading the public into believing that plastic recycling could solve the plastic waste and pollution crisis when they clearly knew that wasn’t possible,” Bonta said in a statement. “Exxon Mobil lied to boost its record profits at the expense of our planet and possibly endangering our health.”

The lawsuit comes nearly two and a half years after Bonta launched an investigation into the fossil fuel and petrochemical industries for their alleged role in causing and exacerbating a global crisis in plastic waste pollution.

At the time, Bonta said he had subpoenaed Exxon Mobil Corp. seeking information related to the company’s “historic and ongoing efforts” to minimize public understanding of the harmful consequences of plastic.

After obtaining the documents through a subpoena, Bonta says he has the evidence and documentation necessary to sue the company on a variety of legal grounds.

In a statement, Bonta said the lawsuit paints the “most complete picture to date” of the oil giant’s “decades-long deception.”

The two lawsuits allege that the oil company violated state laws on natural resources, water pollution, false advertising, unfair competition and nuisance.

Bonta is seeking an injunction to protect the state’s natural resources from further contamination and destruction, as well as to prevent the company from “making further false or misleading statements about plastics recycling and its plastics operations.”

Fossil fuels, such as oil and gas, are the raw material for most plastics. In recent decades, the accumulation of plastic waste has overflowed waterways and oceans, causing diseases for marine life and threatening human health.

The announcement of the two lawsuits comes as state lawmakers seek to reduce plastic pollution at its source, with the passage and implementation of SB54, the Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act, which seeks to shift the responsibility and cost of plastic pollution from taxpayers and consumers to producers and packagers.

It also comes amid a growing body of research showing the pernicious and ubiquitous nature of microplastics in the environment and inside the human body.

Microplastics and nanoplastics are produced when plastic products break down. Petroleum-derived plastics never completely decompose, but instead break down into smaller and smaller fragments, which have now been found in the deepest trenches of our oceans, in the snows of the highest mountain peaks, in our air, water, food and bodies.

Environmentalists hailed the dual lawsuits as much-needed fixes for an industry that for decades has produced products that have seeped into the state's waterways and contaminated human bodies.

“For 40 years, the Surfrider Foundation has fought to protect our oceans, waves, and beaches… Despite these tireless efforts, 85% of the items collected in our 2023 California beach cleanups were still single-use plastics,” said Jennifer Savage, senior manager of the Surfrider Foundation’s plastic pollution initiative. “Now, for the health of our ocean and the people who depend on it, we will take this fight to court to hold Exxon accountable for its contribution to the plastic pollution crisis.”

Christy Leavitt, Oceana’s plastics campaign director, said: “Recycling is like trying to dry up water from an overflowing bathtub while the tap is still running. We need to turn off the tap and reduce production of single-use plastics… If companies won’t reduce their production, governments need to make sure they do.”

On Sunday, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill that would close a loophole in the 2014 plastic bag ban that still allowed some plastic bags to be sold at checkouts.

Studies have shown that the two biggest contributors to the presence of microplastics in the environment are car tyres and synthetic clothing. However, as the plastics industry expands and the number of single-use plastic items grows, so does their contribution to environmental pollution. In 2021, around 151 million tonnes of single-use plastics were produced from fossil fuels. That figure is expected to increase by another 19 million tonnes by 2027.