Chemical recycling is on trial in California.
In a complaint filed in San Francisco County Superior Court on Sept. 23, state Attorney General Rob Bonta alleges that ExxonMobil Corp. has been deceiving Californians into believing that recycling would solve plastic waste and pollution issues.
In a virtual news conference, Bonta explained that the Houston-based company was promoting chemical recycling, which he said was “nothing more than a public relations stunt meant to encourage the public to keep purchasing single-use plastics.”
Bonta was joined by representatives of the Sierra Club, Surfrider Foundation, Heal the Bay, and Baykeeper, who have separately filed their own lawsuit against ExxonMobil.
For its part, ExxonMobil blamed the state for its plastics recycling problems and doubled down on chemical recycling as the solution.
“The first step would be to acknowledge what their counterparts across the U.S. know: advanced recycling works,” the company said. “To date, we’ve processed more than 60 million pounds of plastic waste into usable raw materials, keeping it out of landfills. We’re bringing real solutions, recycling plastic waste that couldn’t be recycled by traditional methods.”