California sues oil giant Exxon over plastic recycling myth [Video]

California said Monday it was suing oil giant ExxonMobil over a “decades-long campaign of deception” about plastics recycling that has worsened a global pollution crisis.

In a lengthy lawsuit filed in San Francisco, the state’s attorney general said the company had used “slick marketing” to deceive consumers into believing single-use plastics could and would be recycled.

Rob Bonta’s suit seeks to force ExxonMobil, a major producer of the polymers used to make plastics, to pay for the clean-up of some of the millions of tons of plastic that pollute land and water, a figure that he told the New York Times could amount to “multiple billions of dollars.”

“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,” Bonta said.

“For decades, ExxonMobil …