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California sues Exxon over worldwide plastic contamination

California has submitted a. suit versus oil giant Exxon Mobil over its declared. role in global plastic waste pollution, its attorney general of the United States. announced on Monday.

Speaking at an event during Environment Week in New York City,. California Attorney General Rob Bonta stated the state sued Exxon. after concluding an almost two-year investigation that he said. revealed Exxon was intentionally misleading the general public about the. limitations of recycling.

The examination mirrors California's previous probes into. the oil industry's supposed efforts to misinform the general public about. climate change.

Bonta stated his office specifically desires information on. Exxon's promotion of its sophisticated recycling technology, which. uses a process called pyrolysis to turn hard-to-recycle plastic. into fuel. He had said the innovation's sluggish progress was an indication. of Exxon's continuous deception.

Today's suit shows the fullest picture to date of. ExxonMobil's decades-long deceptiveness, and we are asking the court. to hold ExxonMobil totally responsible for its function in actively. producing and intensifying the plastics contamination crisis through. its campaign of deception, Bonta said in a statement.

He said he wants to end the business's misleading. practices and seeks to protect an abatement fund and civil. penalties for the harm caused by plastics pollution on. California.

Exxon rejects claims that it misinforms the general public. about the constraints of plastics recycling, or about climate. modification.

Exxon is the world's biggest producer of resins utilized for. single-use plastics, according to a report released in 2015. by the Minderoo Foundation, with consultancies Wood Mackenzie. and the Carbon Trust.

California's claim comes ahead of a last round of worldwide. plastic treaty settlements set to take place in Busan, South. Korea, at the end of the year.

In those talks, nations are divided over whether the treaty. ought to call for caps on plastic production, a position opposed. by Exxon and the international petrochemical industry.

The United States last month said it supports a treaty. designed around global plastic production cuts.

(source: Reuters)