Tiny county files bombshell lawsuit against major industry over 'profit-driven' decisions: 'Deceptive, unfair, unconscionable, and unlawful'

A tiny county in Kansas is standing up to Big Oil, filing a class-action lawsuit alleging that industry companies deceived customers about the effectiveness of recycling plastic.

What's happening?

Ford County, in the southwest part of the Sunflower State, accused Exxon Mobil, Chevron, and other companies as well as the American Chemistry Council, an industry trade association, of making "profit-driven" decisions that led to increased plastic production and sales, higher plastic prices, and "massive sanitation problems for county and city governments and their landfills."

The suit is "the first of its kind to include other major fossil fuel and petrochemical companies and trade associations as defendants" in addition to Exxon, the Center for Climate Integrity reported, pointing out the unprecedented scope of the defendants in a plastics case of this type.

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It says the defendants used misleading campaigns about recycling to grow the plastic market and block government action "that would meaningfully address plastic waste and pollution," Waste Dive stated, quoting the filing.

As a result, Ford County says it had to pay for the consequences in waste and pollution. The county asked for an injunction to stop the defendants' advertising their products as recyclable — "deceptive, unfair, unconscionable, and unlawful business practices," per the court document — in addition to damages and plastic cleanup and disposal costs since 1989.

Why is this important?

The lawsuit continues a trend in which corporations are being sued after harming communities and the environment. Big Oil is at the top of the list, having known since at least 1954 that its very existence could devastate humanity and the planet. The industry knew two decades later that plastic recycling was likely not going to be technically or financially viable but by the 1990s had turned to disinformation campaigns, NPR reported.

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Ross Eisenberg, president of America's Plastic Makers, said in a statement cited by Waste Dive that Ford County should pay to upgrade its recycling infrastructure instead of suing the companies and industry.

"Every community in the United States has been harmed by the fraud of plastic recycling, and as this lawsuit shows, every community has the power to take Big Oil and the plastics industry to court to hold them accountable," CCI President Richard Wiles stated, per Waste Dive. "If a small Kansas county can sue these giant fossil fuel and petrochemical interests based on publicly available evidence, other communities can too."

What's being done about plastic pollution?

The best way to handle the overproduction and overuse of plastic is to stop using it. That's easier said than done, of course, since many consumer goods are sold in plastic whether necessary or not. But you can start by saying "no" to plastic bags at the grocery store. You can also swear off single-use water bottles and plastic food containers. Buy a reusable water bottle, and take your own to-go containers to restaurants.