Summary
- Rob Bonta is Calofirnia’s Attorney General.
- Bonta filed a lawsuit in 2023 accusing Exxon of promoting “deceptive” recycling programs: Exxonmobil promoted recycling to encourage the consumption of single use plastic.
- ExxonMobil filed a lawsuit against California Attorney General Rob Bonta and several environmental groups.
- Exxon accuses Bonta and several environmental groups of conspiring to defame it.
- California Department of Justice: “This is another attempt from Exxon to deflect attention from its own unlawful deception”
Exxon claims that
- Minderoo Foundation, which IEJF is a subsidiary of, made several deceptive statements regarding Exxon’s recycling operations.
- Bonta acted together with law firm Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy which is said to have ties to IEJF
My personal Opinion
Today, we distinguish several possible claims when we talk about recycling:
- recyclability = my plastic can be recycled;
- recycling process = the mechanical, chemical or advanced recycling process that plastic packaging waste undergo to be converted into a feedstock that will be used for new plastic applications;
- recycled content = my plastic packaging contains something else than virgin plastic; it contains recycled plastic resin.
However, in the past they didn’t go as far and as detailed; they just used the magical term and logo ‘Recycling’ that didn’t mean anything. Recycling has never really worked and has been a deceptive lie (except for PET bottles).
- Bonta litigation
It was coming: someone was going to sue chemical companies for lying about recycling claims. In the Exxon case, we’re dealing with the first (1) claim. Exxon claimed that their plastic could be recycled. Exxon is guilty of charge if the American justice system works logically. Exxon will and should be fined millions. Now is the tricky part, if Bonta can prove that Exxon knew that recycling didn’t work and was inexistant, Exxon should be fined Billions.
- Exxon litigation
Exxon is suing Bonta etc. on he basis that deceptive claims have been made about Exxon in the Report and that the stakeholders of the other side are connected. In my eyes, this is a dead end strategy. This is just to gain time and to entangle the state of California in expensive proceedings. Eventually, Exxon will loose on both points.
Exxon doesn’t seem to have the right legal team here. Remember, plastic waste is a complicated matter and lawyers are sometimes a bit deaf.
However, I believe that Exxon may have a case elsewhere, namely in the second ‘recycling’ claims … the recycling process.
Regulating and setting up waste management operations is a task of the government (local, regional or state authorities). The state California or the local Californian authorities were responsible to assign waste management duties and responsibilities to operators.
Let me re-phrase this:
Exxon claimed that their plastic was recyclable but it was not; they lied. They should be fined hundred of millions or billions of dollars depending if Bonta can prove that they knew recycling was fake.
The authorities in California were responsible to take care of the waste management: they had to choose the operators responsible to collect and process the plastics waste. What happened to the so-called recyclable plastic waste if it was not recycled? Was it landfilled, incinerated or exported abroad? Initially, the Californian authorities were expected to instruct the waste processors to recycle the recyclable plastic waste as one could expect under the auspices of good governance.
And here my friends is a little bug: Was the instruction to recycle not given or was is not executed? And this was not the responsibility of Exxon … unless Exxon had a financial share in the waste processing operations. This was the responsibility of the competent authorities.
And that’s were I would instruct Exxon to dig deeper but with another law firm and with some external help as their legal team didn’t formulate this strategy.
Exxon’s moral compass
Exxon is the first company who’s legal proceedings will be amplified and will set precedents for the plastic industry and other industrial nations.
it’s time we place morality on top of the corporate values now. The circus has lasted long enough. The industry fucked up, but the government fucked up too.
Exxon caries a moral responsibility. They should not ignore their role in this recycling lie. They should put an end to it. They should agree with the fact that recycling was a commercial lie. This will drag the other chemical companies in this story but they should also deflect part of their responsibility on the governments who fucked up too.
The US proves one more time that they’re ahead of the EU. Americans are in the action, the EU is in the ‘intention’.
Exxon and the state California …. the world is watching … give us a good fight for our money.
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