Why California Is Taking on ExxonMobil’s Plastic ‘Deception’

The state of California is suing ExxonMobil for what Attorney General Rob Bonta is calling “a decades-long campaign of deception” about plastic recycling. The lawsuit reveals new information, obtained via subpoena, about Exxon’s advanced recycling methods–alleging that the technology actually recycles very little.

“While plastics are not actually being recycled, the one thing that ExxonMobil does recycle is its lies, its deception,” Bonta said during a press conference at New York City Climate Week.

The announcement also follows a ban on plastic bags at California grocery stores, signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom Sunday.

During a fireside chat at New York City Climate Week, Bonta discussed the lawsuit with actor Lou Diamond Phillips. The lawsuit alleges that ExxonMobil’s messaging around plastic pushed consumers to buy and use more of the petroleum-derived substance than they would have if they’d known how technically or financially difficult it is to recycle. Exxon is one of the world’s largest producers of the raw materials that form single use plastics. The goals of the suit, Bonta said, are multifold and involve forcing Exxon to cease its claims that single-use plastics can be and are being recycled, as well as pushing the company to finance an abatement fund to put an end to ongoing and future harms through research and development on recycling, education campaigns, and more.

“They should really be telling people that 95 percent of the plastics that they make are going into the environment or the incinerator,” Bonta said. “Consumers would receive that and act on that in a very different way than what they’re told now that every piece of plastic they ever encounter is circular and has a new life.”

Bonta said the suit also sheds new light on Exxon’s advanced recycling claims. Via subpoenas, he said the state determined that an estimated 92 percent of the plastics processed this way wind up as transportation fuel, and only about 8 percent becomes plastics in new products. 

“It’s not new, it’s not advanced, and it doesn’t recycle. What advanced recycling is best at is turning plastics into transportation fuel that is then burned and turned into carbon dioxide in the environment,” he said.

An ExxonMobil spokesperson insisted in a comment that “advanced recycling works” and placed the blame on California officials for ineffective recycling. 

“To date, we’ve processed more than 60 million pounds of plastic waste into usable raw materials, keeping it out of landfills,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

The announcement follows Sunday’s action from California Gov. Gavin Newsom, prohibiting plastic bags at grocery store checkout areas. The law had previously enabled shoppers to purchase thicker, purportedly recyclable plastic, but now consumers who do not bring their own bags will be offered paper.