By Nate Scherer
The idea of corporate social responsibility is not new. For years there have been efforts for companies to act more socially responsible, particularly with regard to environmental protection. While environmental protection is important, sustainability concerns must be carefully balanced with consumer interests. The country's most populous state appears to have increasingly forgotten this important fact.
California is suing oil and gas giant ExxonMobil over alleged “misleading public messaging around plastic recycling” and its complicity in “the plastic waste and pollution crisis.” Unfortunately, the lawsuit is extremely misguided and ignores the complicated role that plastics continue to play in society. The goal is to blame a single company for a global problem while absolving itself of any responsibility.
While many states have passed laws requiring manufacturers to recycle or otherwise safely dispose of waste products, California's lawsuit goes a step further. The goal is to hold a company liable for something for which it, as a large oil and gas producer, is only indirectly responsible. This makes it particularly dangerous and potentially harmful to consumer interests as plastics have a wide range of uses and continue to be widely used.
It goes without saying that plastic waste is a serious problem that in many ways embodies the economic concept of community tragedy, where individual actions can collectively have negative consequences. Every year the United States produces millions of tons of plastic, much of which ultimately ends up in landfills or, in the worst case scenario, disposed of into the environment. California notes that only a small percentage of this plastic is recycled; the Environmental Protection Agency estimates the number at about 9%.
However, California has chosen to denounce Exxon for promoting advanced recycling technology and displaying the widely recognized recycling symbol on its products. The state argues these measures have led consumers to believe that products would be recycled if disposed of properly, even though most current research suggests this is not the case. But touting technological advances in recycling — even if they are modest — and encouraging people to recycle is a good thing, not a bad thing.
The federal government has promoted recycling for decades and spends millions annually on educational campaigns such as America Recycles Day. For its part, California continues to promote recycling and regularly adopts new rules and regulations to make the process easier for consumers. Whether these efforts are effective is another question, but Exxon is far from alone in embracing recycling as a solution to plastic waste.
That makes California's lawsuit against Exxon disingenuous. The state appears far more interested in cracking down on the company simply because it is the world's largest “refiner and marketer” of petrochemical products than it is concerned about solving the world's plastic pollution problem. Perhaps that's why the Golden State is seeking “several billions of dollars” in civil penalties.
The lawsuit also appears to neglect the enormous benefits that plastics have brought to ordinary people, including Californians. Despite the ongoing challenges in recycling, plastics are attractive because they are extremely versatile, inexpensive to produce, and have many unique properties that make them preferable to alternative materials that are not always as practical to use or even better for the environment.
It is not for nothing that plastics are called a “material with 1,000 possible uses”. Today, over 6,000 consumer products rely on petrochemicals as a primary ingredient. They can be found in everyday items like milk cartons and shampoo bottles, as well as life-saving medical devices and car seat belts. One would think that a state that claims it is concerned that “plastics are everywhere” would at least try to understand why that is and what makes the material so popular.
Unfortunately, this would require California to carefully weigh the pros and cons of plastics, something the country has shown no interest in doing when attempting to abandon oil and gas. California would do well to remember that solving global problems like plastic waste requires global efforts that are undermined every time it chooses to single out a company that has already committed to doing its part.
Nate Scherer is a policy analyst at the American Consumer Institute, a nonprofit education and research organization. For more information about the Institute, visit us at www.TheAmericanConsumer.Org or follow us on X @ConsumerPal
This article was originally published by RealClearEnergy and made available via RealClearWire.
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