The Big Lie: How ExxonMobil Profited from a Plastic Pollution Fantasy
California Lawsuit Targets ExxonMobil’s Deceptive Practices
In a landmark move, California Attorney General Rob Bonta has filed a lawsuit against ExxonMobil, accusing the company of misleading the public about plastic recycling. The lawsuit, which follows a two-and-a-half-year investigation, claims that ExxonMobil has falsely promoted plastic recycling as a solution to pollution since the 1980s—despite knowing full well that most plastics are neither recyclable nor biodegradable.
Bonta argues that ExxonMobil and other industry players used deceptive marketing tactics to shift responsibility for plastic pollution onto consumers, all while continuing to profit from single-use plastics. According to the lawsuit, the company's strategy successfully delayed meaningful regulation and allowed plastic production to skyrocket, despite the dismal reality: today, less than 6% of U.S. plastics are recycled.
The core of Bonta's argument is that most plastics, made up of more than 16,000 different chemicals, are inherently difficult or impossible to recycle. Yet for decades, ExxonMobil has sold the idea that recycling was the answer, painting a false picture of sustainability. As environmental awareness grew, ExxonMobil raised the stakes by pushing "chemical recycling"—a process that, in most cases, turns plastic into fuel rather than reusable products—a convenient excuse to keep the plastic pipeline flowing under the pretence of innovation.
These tactics are nothing new. Since the 1970s, big fossil fuel corporations, like ExxonMobil, Shell, and BP, have been involved in long-running deception campaigns to downplay the impact of fossil fuels on climate change. They have financed research and public relations campaigns to cast doubt on the science of climate change and shift blame from fossil fuel industries to consumers.
What makes this lawsuit particularly significant is that it's the first of its kind—no state has ever sued a company for deceiving the public about plastic recycling. If successful, the case could set a precedent, for holding corporations accountable for their role in environmental damage and misleading the public on sustainability efforts.
Sources:
California attorney general sues Exxon Mobil over plastics recycling deceptions - POLITICO
California sues Exxon Mobil over ‘sham’ of plastics recycling | Grist
California sues ExxonMobil over plastics recycling 'deception' - BBC News
Assessing ExxonMobil's climate change communications (1977–2014), Geoffrey Supran and Naomi Oreskes, 2017 Environ. Res. Lett. 12
Merchants of Doubt – Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway (2010)
Shannon Hall, Exxon Knew About Climate Change Almost 40 Years Ago – Scientific American (2015)