Described as a first-of-its-kind lawsuit, California Attorney General Rob Bonta has sued ExxonMobil, alleging the petrochemical multinational has deceived the public about the recyclability of plastic for decades and is a prime culprit behind what prosecutors described as the planet’s plastic pollution crisis.

Filed last week, the suit centers on allegations that ExxonMobil’s marketing/messaging misled consumers to believe that single-use plastic is more widely and readily recycled than it is, causing people to buy and use more of the product than they would have if they knew the truth.

“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 said in a statement. “ExxonMobil lied to further its record-breaking profits at the expense of our planet and possibly jeopardizing our health.”

The suit doesn’t directly involve the promotional products market, but it’s outcome can have potential import across industries when it comes to marketing, advertising and other messaging involving products with plastic and claims of sustainability and recyclability. Analysts noted this was the first-ever lawsuit aimed at a fossil fuel company over its messaging regarding the recyclability of plastic.

“This suit is a high-profile reminder PR and floofy messaging around environmental, social and governance efforts can’t come before the actual baseline, benchmarks and measurable specifics in impact reporting,” wrote Justin Joffe, editor-in-chief at Ragan Communications, a resource and publisher of information about corporate communications, internal communication and more.

Joffe continued: “This is an example of when getting the words right is more than just a bad look but a billion-dollar lawsuit. … Vetting brand assets and imagery to ensure they aren’t putting forth false claims or promises will minimize the likelihood of external audiences misconstruing your meaning, or weaponizing your efforts against you down the road.”

About 5%
of U.S. plastic waste is recycled, and the recycling rate has never exceeded 9%. (California Attorney General’s Office)

ExxonMobil hit back at Bonta and California, saying the Golden State’s recycling infrastructure is inadequate and has been for decades – the real reason plastic recycling hasn’t become more widespread there when it could be given the composition of plastic products.

“They failed to act, and now they seek to blame others,” the company said in a statement. “Instead of suing us, they could have worked with us to fix the problem and keep plastic out of landfills.”

According to the lawsuit, ExxonMobil is the world’s largest producer of polymers – materials other companies source to then create single-use plastic products, such as bags, bottles and utensils.

A statement from the California Attorney General’s Office said ExxonMobil “falsely promoted all plastic as recyclable, when in fact the vast majority of plastic products are not and likely cannot be recycled, either technically or economically. This caused consumers to purchase and use more single-use plastic than they otherwise would have due to the company’s misleading public statements and advertising.”

430 million tons
of plastic is produced yearly. (United Nations Environment Programme)

Relatedly, the lawsuit pans ExxonMobil for promoting advanced recycling. Also known as “chemical recycling,” this process converts plastic waste back into its molecular building blocks, which then become the raw material for making new plastics.

However, ExxonMobil’s advanced recycling program “hides important truths about its technical limitation, including that the vast majority – 92% – of plastic waste processed through ExxonMobil’s 'advanced recycling' technology does not become recycled plastic but rather primarily fuels,” the AG’s office said.

Even “in ExxonMobil’s best-case scenario,” advanced recycling “will only account for less than 1% of ExxonMobil’s total virgin plastic production capacity," California prosecutors continued.

The attorney general of California, Rob Bonta, sued Exxon Mobil on Monday alleging that the oil giant carried out a “decades-long campaign of deception” that overhyped the promise of recycling and spawned a plastic pollution crisis. https://t.co/zgtifpiegz pic.twitter.com/X1qskv7Eim

— The New York Times (@nytimes) September 23, 2024

The American Chemistry Council (ACC), which has lobbied for ExxonMobil, criticized the lawsuit and its assertions regarding plastic recycling in a statement to Chemical & Engineering News.

“It is disappointing that legal action has diverted time and resources away from our industry’s efforts to scale up a circular economy for plastics, where more plastics are reused and remade instead of discarded,” ACC Spokesman Matthew Kastner said in an emailed statement to the publication.

California prosecutors have sued ExxonMobil for alleged violations of state nuisance, natural resources, water pollution, false advertisement and unfair competition laws.

Bonta is seeking nuisance abatement, civil penalties, an order prohibiting ExxonMobil from making so-called false statements about plastic’s recyclability and for the fossil fuel company to give up profits gained through its alleged misleading messaging, which could translate to billions of dollars.

Sierra Club, Surfrider Foundation, Heal the Bay, and Baykeeper – all environmental groups – separately filed another lawsuit last week against ExxonMobil over alleged violations of unfair competition and state nuisance laws.

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