The stage has been set for a fresh legal showdown over plastics, and the industry is on guard.
The strategy — which hinges on the industry long knowing plastics recycling could never be a viable, long-term solution to a burgeoning global pollution concern but continuing to peddle the lie anyway — mirrors highly effective attacks on tobacco and “forever chemicals” manufacturers.
“There’s a value, for political purposes, to use litigation as a tactic,” Plastics Industry Association (PLASTICS) CEO Matt Seaholm said. “So I think we have to fully anticipate that there will unfortunately be more litigation in the future.”
Bracing for a wave of lawsuits from advocacy groups and state attorneys general, plastic producers are investing heavily in controversial approaches to boosting stagnant recycling rates to repair the public’s growing distrust.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta recently told Reuters he is “weeks” away from releasing his office’s findings from a two-year probe into the roles Exxon Mobil and other petrochemical or fossil fuel companies have played in pushing a “decades-long campaign of deception.” A spokesperson for Bonta’s office recently confirmed there are no further updates.
Last year, New York Attorney General Letitia James brought charges against PepsiCo, alleging its plastic pollution created a public nuisance and health risks the company failed to warn the public about, all while promoting misleading statements about the efficacy of recycling.
Bethany Davis Noll, who works with state attorneys general on clean energy and climate work as executive director of New York University School of Law’s State Energy & Environmental Impact Center, said “it’s highly likely” we’ll see an uptick in similar lawsuits, adding that “plastics has been a space [attorneys general have] been working on more and more.”
She said New York’s complaint is “a classic case of public nuisance, and I’m certain that other states are looking at the same thing.”
Pat Parenteau, emeritus professor and senior fellow for climate policy at the Vermont Law and Graduate School, agreed, adding “it will take some time” before other states catch on, since larger states like New York and California “have the most muscle behind them.”
Bonta’s and James’ actions each mark the first time a state attorney general has launched an investigation or sued, respectively, over the feasibility of plastics recycling. But it’s not the first time plastics have been scrutinized in court.
Courtesy : eenews.net