Returning to NPR’s “Waste Land” as California Sues Exxon Mobil
Landfill workers bury all plastic except soda bottles and milk jugs at Rogue Disposal & Recycling in southern Oregon. Laura Sullivan for NPR
by Vahini Shori, 2024-25 duPont Fellow
California is now suing Exxon Mobil for misleading the public about the efficacy of plastic recycling.
The suit cites reporting done by 2022 duPont Award winner Laura Sullivan. In the award-winning podcast episode for NPR’s Planet Money and FRONTLINE (PBS), Sullivan pulls back the curtain on how she tracked down a retired plastics industry lobbyist, Larry Thomas. He then went on the record along with his former colleague, Lew Freeman. They revealed how back in the seventies they were part of a team that deliberately engineered a marketing strategy to convince the public - falsely - that plastics were not a concern for the environment.
According to the brief filed by the attorney general of California's office, the amount of plastic waste leaked into the environment in California in 2022 alone ranged from 121,324 to 179,656 tonnes, or “the equivalent of dumping 20 to 30 garbage trucks of plastic waste per day into California’s landscapes and waterways.”
The state of California is seeking an “abatement” fund to be used to mitigate damages caused by plastic pollution in the state of California.
This important subject continues to merit ongoing attention. Just this year, ABC News won a duPont Award for their investigation, Trashed: The Secret Life of Plastic Recycling, which also investigated the plastic industry by tracking plastic bags intended for recycling to their actual destination - garbage dumps and incinerators.
The articles cited by the suit can be found here:
https://www.npr.org/2020/12/22/946716058/big-oil-evaded-regulation-and-plastic-pellets-kept-spilling
Laura’s duPont Award Winning Planet Money episode, Waste Land, can be found here: