California's Attorney General has filed suit against oil giant ExxonMobil for what the complaint says is a "decades long campaign of deception" about plastic recycling. In a press conference Rob Bona said,"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" Typically Exxon blamed the state for an inadequate recycling program.
US Person posted about the broken promise of recycling. {28.02.2024} The petrochemical industry knew that recycling would not be able to handle the deluge of plastic waste now polluting our land and sea. But the claims have prolonged consumer acceptance of plastics, allowing companies like Exxon to generate record-breaking profits. A spokesperson for Exxon claimed that the company has processed more than 60 million pounds of plastic waste into reusable material. This suit is the first to attempt to hold a petrochemical company liable for plastic wastes, Bonta's office investigated plastic waste recycling for two years before filing the suit. Last year the Attorney General sued ExxonMobil and other giants for global climate change damages
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| [photo credit: UK Guardian] |
Exxon-Mobil is the world's largest producer of single-use plastic resins according to an Australian NGO. Almost all of the processed waste has been converted to fuel rather than re-use material. According to the AG Exxon's deceptive practices violated nuisance, false advertising and unfair competition laws as well as environmental protection laws. The world produces over 400 million tons of plastic waste per year. Only about 9% of that is recycled according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OCED)