ExxonMobil Touted Recycling as a Fix to Plastic Waste. That Was a Lie, California Says

California and a group of environmental nonprofits sued ExxonMobil on Monday, accusing the oil giant of intentionally misleading the public about how much plastic waste can actually be recycled, causing an inundation of plastic pollution and contamination in the state.

ExxonMobil is one of the biggest producers of polymers, which are used to manufacture plastic bags, bottles, snack wrappers, straws and cups. They ultimately disintegrate into microplastics, further contaminating the environment and human bodies, the first-of-its-kind lawsuit filed by Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office notes.

The 147-page complaint calls plastic pollution a “devastating global environmental crisis” that is affecting California’s coastlines, bays and beaches.

“ExxonMobil has misled consumers and continues to do so by engaging in an aggressive campaign to deceive the public and perpetuate the myth that recycling will solve the crisis of plastic pollution,” Bonta said in a statement. “For decades, ExxonMobil has dumped the cleanup and environmental costs of its deception and plastic production onto the public, and Californians are paying the price.”

Bonta’s office spent more than two years investigating its case, which included subpoenas to Exxon and other plastics groups seeking information on how the company allegedly deceived California residents about the recyclability of its products.

In his complaint, Bonta argues Exxon was aware of the environmental and health harms caused by plastic production, outlining the various ways in which the company lied about the recyclability of its products to increase production and, ultimately, profits.

“Perceiving an urgent need to quell public outcry, Exxon and Mobil falsely claimed that plastic waste was being handled,” the complaint says. “Exxon and Mobil evidently calculated that it was safer to assert that landfilling and incineration were both capable of safely addressing plastic waste—even while knowing this was not the case—rather than risk being forced to slow their growing plastics businesses.”

California’s lawsuit does not seek traditional damages but rather billions of dollars from Exxon in remedies to secure an abatement fund, disgorgement — the return of illegally or unethically obtained profits — and civil penalties.

In a separate civil lawsuit, the Sierra Club, Surfrider Foundation, Heal the Bay and San Francisco Baykeeper argue that ExxonMobil engaged in a decades-long operation to “bury the truth” about plastic recycling. That lawsuit seeks compensation for cleanup costs incurred by the organizations, as well as injunctive relief.

“San Francisco Bay has some of the highest levels of microplastics in the world,” Sejal Choksi-Chugh, executive director of San Francisco Baykeeper, said in a statement. “People and wildlife around the Bay deserve to live free from exposure to toxic petrochemicals and microplastics.”

Both lawsuits are filed in San Francisco County Superior Court, and in a joint press conference, plaintiffs said they would coordinate prosecution.

“Our nonprofits, with the mission they’ve had for decades, could not sit by and say, ‘Well, someone else is taking the mantle, so we’ll sit back,’” said Niall P. McCarthy with Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, LLP, which is representing the environmental groups. “I think the joint public-private partnership here is going to be a tremendous benefit to the overall prosecution of the case against Exxon.”

In a statement, Exxon turned the blame back onto California leaders.

“For decades, California officials have known their recycling system isn’t effective,” wrote an Exxon spokesperson. “They failed to act, and now they seek to blame others. Instead of suing us, they could have worked with us to fix the problem and keep plastic out of landfills.”

Bonta’s office filed a similar lawsuit last year, accusing big oil companies of deceiving the public about climate change. Exxon is a defendant in that ongoing suit, too.

KQED’s Carly Severn contributed to this report.