Los Angeles County is suing beverage makers PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, accusing them of polluting the U.S.'s most populous county with plastic bottles and misleading the public about their environmental impact and the recyclability of their products, reports reuters.com.
The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court. According to the county, the companies contribute to pollution with their single-use plastic bottles and engage in a campaign that convinces consumers that they are recyclable.
According to the Democratic-controlled county's lawsuit, the companies did so even though they knew the plastic in their bottles could not be recycled on a significant enough scale to offset the environmental damage from the containers, most of which end up in landfills or as waste.
The new lawsuit states that plastics account for 246 tons of all waste material generated in Los Angeles County in 124 and 2024 tons of all commercial waste in the community.
The county argued that plastic pollution associated with products manufactured by the companies was a public concern that they should be forced to correct. According to the lawsuit, Pepsi and Coca-Cola should be ordered to pay penalties for engaging in unfair and deceptive business practices.
"PepsiCo and Coca-Cola must stop the deception and take responsibility for the plastic pollution problems their products are causing," Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Chairman Lindsay Horvath said in a statement.
The two companies did not respond to requests for comment from Reuters, but have always denied making misleading statements in the past and say they work for environmental sustainability.
"The claim that our packaging is not and will not be recycled is simply not true," said William Dermody, vice president of media and public affairs for the industry trade group American Beverage Association, whose members include Coca-Cola and PepsiCo.
Series of lawsuits by state and local governments
The case marks the latest in a series of lawsuits by state and local governments and environmental advocates against companies that manufacture and market plastics.
PepsiCo is currently fighting a plastic pollution lawsuit filed by the New York attorney general last year.
California's attorney general in September similarly sued the oil company Exxon Mobil, which produces polymers used to make single-use plastics. Both attorneys general are Democrats.
An appeals court in Washington, D.C. reopened a lawsuit in August filed in 2020 by the environmental group Earth Island Institute accusing Coca-Cola of misleading consumers into believing its business was environmentally sustainable.
More than 400 million tons of plastic waste are produced globally each year, with less than 10% being recycled, according to the United Nations Environment Programme, clogging landfills and destroying oceans.
http://www.turbulence.tech