In September 2024, California’s Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit against the biggest corporations in the plastics industry, including ExxonMobil, over deceptive recycling claims. Bonta alleged that these chemical firms were intentionally deceiving the public about the efficacy of recycling while reaping billions in profits.
Now, ExxonMobil has struck back, filing a defamation lawsuit against the state of California and environmental advocacy groups like Sierra Club, Surfrider Foundation, Heal The Bay, San Francisco Baykeeper, and the Australian-based Intergenerational Environment Justice Fund (IEJF) over statements regarding its “advance recycling technology.”
In its federal lawsuit, filed in the Eastern District of Texas, ExxonMobil claims that “Together, Bonta and the US Proxies—the former for political gain and the latter pawns for the Foreign Interests—have engaged in a deliberate smear campaign against ExxonMobil, falsely claiming that ExxonMobil’s effective and innovative advanced recycling technology is a ‘false promise’ and ‘not based on truth,’” as reported by the Associated Press.
