State to probe plastic pollution
AG subpoenas Exxonmobil, says fossil fuel industry has engaged in `campaign of deception' over recycling
California Attorney General Rob Bonta on April 28 announced a major investigation into companies that manufacture plastics, the first of its kind in the nation, saying that for 50 years they have been engaged in potentially illegal business practices by misleadingly claiming that plastics products are recyclable, when most are not.
Bonta said he issued subpoenas to Exxonmobil, with other companies likely to follow, and said society's growing plastics pollution problem — particularly in oceans, which are littered by trillions of tiny pieces of plastic — is something they are legally liable for and should be ordered to address.
“In California and across the globe, we are seeing the catastrophic results of the fossil fuel industry's decades-long campaign of deception,” Bonta said. “Plastic pollution is seeping into our waterways, poisoning our environment, and blighting our landscapes. Enough is enough.”
The companies could be liable under California laws that prohibit fraudulent claims by industry, unfair business practices or environmental pollution, he said.
Many measures of environmental health in the United States have been improving in recent decades, from smog levels to renewable energy. But plastics pollution is growing steadily worse.
Half the plastic that has ever existed on Earth was made in the last 20 years. Only 9% of the plastic sold every year in the United States is recycled, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Up to 13 million metric tons of it ends up in the world's oceans each year — the equivalent of a garbage truck-full being dumped into the sea every minute — where it kills fish, birds, sea turtles, whales and dolphins that eat it or become entangled by it.
Plastic lasts for hundreds of years, and making it consumes large amounts of petroleum, which contributes to climate change. At the current rate, one recent study found, by 2050 there will be more plastic by weight in the ocean than fish, most of it broken into trillions of tiny pieces of toxic confetti.
Another recent study found that every person in the world ingests an average of 5 grams of tiny microscopic plastic every week, the equivalent of a credit card, through the water they drink, food they eat — particularly seafood — and the air they breathe.
The impacts to human health are unclear.
On April 28, asked about Bonta's claims that plastics companies have fraudulently misrepresented plastic recycling for decades, the American Chemistry Council, a trade association that includes Dow, Dupont, 3M and Exxonmobil Chemical, did not directly respond. Instead it issued a statement saying: “Plastics belong in our economy, not our environment. America's plastic makers are committed to a more sustainable future and have proposed comprehensive and bold actions at the state, federal, and international levels.”
Among reforms the council supports, said spokesman Matthew Kastner, is a requirement that all plastic packaging in the U.S. include at least 30% recycled plastic by 2030.
Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a state law requiring 25% by 2025 and 50% by 2030.
Bonta's move comes as environmentalists have spent several years unsuccessfully trying to convince state lawmakers to force companies that manufacture plastics to take the materials back or fund programs to recycle them at much higher rates.
In what is expected to be a major showdown with industry and environmental groups, a ballot measure supported by organizations such as the Monterey Bay Aquarium will appear before California voters in November to require companies to take those steps.
If approved by a majority of voters, the measure would ban polystyrene, or foam, food packaging, such as clamshell boxes for takeout food at stores, supermarkets and restaurants statewide. It also would impose a 1-cent fee on each item of plastic packaging, paid by packaging manufacturers, which could raise $1 billion annually to fund recycling efforts, beach cleanups and other pollution programs.
And it would require companies that make plastic packaging — from fastfood containers to packaging that holds toys and other products inside cardboard boxes — to reduce by 25% the amount they sell in
California by 2030.
Practically speaking, that could mean companies would have to set up “take back” programs or fund recycling efforts. They would likely have to discontinue hard-to-recycle plastic and use less packaging in general.
Tim Shestek, a spokesman for the American Chemistry Council, last year called the measure “a massive taxpayer-funded giveaway of billions of dollars to fund a variety of special interest pet projects.”
Environmentalists welcomed Bonta's investigation.
“Since I began working in this area 35 years ago, the industry has been promising that plastics recycling was right around the corner,” said Mark Murray, executive director of Californians Against Waste. “With one exception — PET plastic used in bottles — no other type of plastic is being recycled in any meaningful amount.”
At a news conference April 28 at Dockweiler State Beach in Los Angeles, Bonta cited recent news investigations, including one by NPR and PBS' “Frontline,” that showed plastics companies knew since the 1970s that some types of plastics were not economically viable to recycle but made the claims anyway to avoid pollution laws.
“It was all a big ruse,” Bonta said. “The big oil executives, they knew the truth. The truth is that the vast majority of plastic cannot be recycled. The truth is the recycling rate has never surpassed 9%. The truth is the vast majority of plastic products by design cannot be recycled and 91% end up in landfills, are burned or are released into the environment.”