CNN —California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit against ExxonMobil on Monday for what the state calls a “decades-long campaign of deception” in which the oil and gas giant allegedly misled the public on the merits of plastic recycling. Bonta is also asking the court to rule ExxonMobil must pay civil penalties, among other payments, for the harm inflicted by plastic pollution in California. “For decades, ExxonMobil has been deceiving the public to convince us that plastic recycling could solve the plastic waste and pollution crisis when they clearly knew this wasn’t possible. Recent reports have shown only around 9% of the world’s plastic is recycled, a figure that’s even lower in the US, around 5 to 6%. Recycling has not kept pace with plastic production, which has doubled over the past 20 years.

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Persons: Rob Bonta, ExxonMobil “, Bonta, ” Bonta, “, Judith Enck, ”, Laura Paddison Organizations: CNN, ExxonMobil, San, Court, “, of Justice, ”, Environmental Protection Agency, Beyond Plastics, Bennington College in Locations: California, San Francisco County, Bennington College in Vermont