California Sues ExxonMobil Over Deceptive Plastic Recycling Claims [Video]

The state of California has filed a lawsuit against ExxonMobil over allegations that the oil company used deceptive claims about plastics recycling.

On Monday, California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the lawsuit against ExxonMobil “for allegedly engaging in a decades-long campaign of deception that caused and exacerbated the global plastics pollution crisis.”

“The Department of Justice alleges that ExxonMobil has been deceiving Californians for half a century through misleading public statements and slick marketing promising that recycling would address the ever-increasing amount of plastic waste ExxonMobil produces,” Bonta’s office said in a press release.

“Through this lawsuit, the Attorney General seeks to compel ExxonMobil, which promotes and produces the largest amount of polymers—essentially the building blocks used to make single-use plastic—that become plastic waste in California, to end its deceptive practices that threaten the environment and the public,” the press release said.

Bonta’s office noted that despite the existence of recycling programs, fewer than …