California sues ExxonMobil over plastics

California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit against ExxonMobil Sept. 22, accusing the company of misleading the public about the sustainability of plastics recycling—a deceit that the suit says led to the global plastics pollution crisis. Citing publicly available and internal industry information, Bonta says the oil and chemical manufacturer has been deluding people in California for 50 years by claiming that mechanical recycling and more recently chemical recycling are the answer to the plastic waste problem. Bonta is seeking unspecified damages that include profits ExxonMobil made as a result of the alleged misleading information. He also seeks a fund to clean up the damage that he says ExxonMobil has done to the environment and people’s health in California. “For decades, ExxonMobil has been deceiving the public to convince us that plastic recycling could solve the plastic waste and pollution crisis when they clearly knew this wasn’t possible,” Bonta