California sues Exxon over global plastic pollution

By Valerie Volcovici

NEW YORK (Reuters) -California has filed a lawsuit against oil giant Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) 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.

He said he wants to end the company's "deceptive practices" and seeks to secure an abatement fund and civil penalties for the harm inflicted by plastics pollution on California.

Exxon pushed back at the attorney general, arguing that solutions like advanced recycling work.

"Suing people makes headlines but doesn’t solve the plastic waste problem. Advanced recycling is a real solution," said a spokesperson for ExxonMobil, adding that California has done "nothing to 'advance' recycling."

Exxon is the world’s largest producer of resins used for single-use plastics, according to a report published last year by the Minderoo Foundation, with consultancies Wood Mackenzie and the Carbon Trust.

California's lawsuit comes ahead of a final round of global plastic treaty negotiations set to take place in Busan, South Korea, at the end of the year.

In those talks, countries are split over whether the treaty should call for caps on plastic production, a position opposed by Exxon and the global petrochemical industry.

The United States last month said it supports a treaty designed around global plastic production cuts. 

Environmental groups praised the lawsuit and said it draws attention to the shortcomings of mechanical and advanced recycling.

Christy Leavitt, Oceana’s plastics campaign director, said the lawsuit will "hold industry accountable and debunk the plastics recycling narrative that holds us back from real solutions."