Bales of plastic sit at the ecomaine recycling center in March 2021 in Portland. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

The state of California sued ExxonMobil on Monday, accusing the oil giant of misleading the public about the effectiveness of plastics recycling and contributing to the flood of bottles, bags and wrappers polluting waterways in the state and worldwide.

In the first lawsuit of its kind, California Attorney General Rob Bonta alleged that ExxonMobil has engaged “in a decades-long campaign of deception that caused and exacerbated the global plastics pollution crisis.” Exxon is a major producer of the synthetic substances used to make plastics.

The lawsuit, filed Monday in San Francisco County Superior Court, seeks to hold the oil titan accountable for allegedly falsely promoting all plastics as recyclable, including a more recent effort to push the controversial practice of advanced recycling, also known as chemical recycling, as a solution. Some recent estimates suggest that only a small fraction of the plastic produced gets recycled: about 9 percent worldwide and about 5 to 6 percent in the United States.

“For decades, ExxonMobil has been deceiving the public to convince us that plastic recycling could solve the plastic waste and pollution crisis when they clearly knew this wasn’t possible,” Bonta said in a statement. “ExxonMobil lied to further its [record]-breaking profits at the expense of our planet and possibly jeopardizing our health.”

The Washington Post has asked ExxonMobil for comment.

The legal action comes amid a broader effort to stem the deluge of plastic that ends up in the environment. A recent study found Earth’s oceans contain more than 170 trillion pieces of plastic. The material can also break down into tiny microplastics or nanoplastics that can enter human blood, lungs and other organs.

On Sunday, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation that would ban all plastic shopping bags from grocery and convenience store checkouts statewide by 2026. Last year, New York sued PepsiCo, accusing the soda and snack company of polluting the Buffalo River with packaging from its products.

The lawsuit against ExxonMobil was heralded by environmental advocates.

“This is the single most consequential lawsuit filed against the plastics industry for its persistent and continued lying about plastics recycling,” Judith Enck, a former senior Environmental Protection Agency official in the Obama administration who now heads Beyond Plastics, an advocacy organization, said in a statement. “Attorney General Bonta is leading the way to corporate accountability and a cleaner and healthier world. This lawsuit will set an invaluable precedent for others to follow.”