California Attorney General Rob Bonta sued ExxonMobil on Monday, accusing the oil and gas giant of knowingly contributing to “one of the most devastating global environmental crises of our time” while misleading the public about recycling as a solution.
The much-anticipated lawsuit is the first in which a state has gone after a big plastics manufacturer for environmental harm. It claims ExxonMobil is substantially responsible for “the deluge of plastic pollution that has harmed and continues to harm California’s environment, wildlife, natural resources, and people.”
The company “deceived Californians for almost half a century by promising that recycling could and would solve the ever-growing plastic waste crisis,” and Exxon’s new claims around “advanced” or “chemical” recycling are more of the same, according to the lawsuit. It cites investigative reporting from Inside Climate News and a raft of other sources, including internal company documents.
The news covered that case, in some length, last night. I do need to observe that, if Exxon was not directly running the recycling programs, how could Exxon be held liable for the recycling program’s poor performance?
Exxon was lying to the public that the plastics can easily be recycled. The problem is not that the recycling programs had poor performance. The problem is that most plastics can not be recycled.
Read the article for more details and use the internet to find out about the truth behind plastics. We have discussed plastics many times on this board in the past 10 years. We have always concluded that the oil companies know the facts but they deny the facts in public.
Remember oil companies denied smog, green house gases and climate change.
Remember tobacco companies denied lung cancer and other ailments due to smoking.
It’s the difference between “can” and “will”. It may be technically possible to recycle all the plastic that companies like Exxon produce. Will people actually put all the plastic in a recycling bin? Will all the plastic put in the bin be recycled? Will recycling all the plastic be cost effective? How many of those factors does Exxon have control of? Is Exxon liable if others downstream drop the ball? Is this like suing the makers of a “Stop” sign, because drivers ignore it and the police don’t enforce it?
The problem is that most plastics can not be recycled.
Now that is a different matter. If Exxon is putting a recycling symbol on products that are technically impossible to recycle, then they are fibbing.
Dump all the plastics on the oil company’s properties. When they whine, tell them they can resolve their problem by recycling (as originally claimed by them). If they don’t like it, ignore them. Have state and local govt issue them “clean up your messy property” tickets. If the company ignores it, fine them heavily–DAILY. Also pile the plastic on the properties of the C-level executives. When it starts to “hit home”, things will begin to get interesting.