Our Attorney General is really a piece of work.  His latest gambit to attack oil and gas companies is to sue ExxonMobil for deceptive recycling practices.  You heard right.  Apparently, we are all being deceived about recycling by ExxonMobil.  Oddly enough, I have never heard one thing from ExxonMobil about plastics or recycling, but per the Merc piece today:

California Attorney General Rob Bonta and a coalition of environmental nonprofits sued Exxon Mobil on Monday morning alleging the gas giant enacted a “decades-long campaign of deception” that fueled a global plastic pollution crisis.  The lawsuits will seek civil damages from ExxonMobil for environmental destruction, public health harms, and an end to its “deceptive practices” that they argue have led to plastic being found from the depths of the ocean to the peak of Mt. Everest.

The converging lawsuits against ExxonMobil will attempt to prove the corporation systematically led the public to believe that plastic waste is safely disposable through recycling and failed to share information about toxic “forever” chemicals and plastics’ lasting environmental harms. If successful, the lawsuits would compel ExxonMobil to end its “deceptive” practices and could secure hundreds of millions to support climate change solutions.

There is definitely some misinformation or deception going on in the recycling world.  We noted it in April 2021 here.  Recall from that post that "More than 90% of plastics generated in the U.S. each year winds up in landfills or incinerators, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.  Only about 9% is recycled."

We are paying a nickel or a dime extra for every container in CRV, but 9 out of 10 just go to the landfill.  If any organization is fooling people about recyling it's the state via the CRV mandate.  Maybe Bonta should be suing the State of California for deceptive practices and public theft?  Don't hold your breath.