SAN FRANCISCO — Exxon Mobil Corp. initiated a federal defamation lawsuit against California Attorney General Rob Bonta, along with various environmental organizations, following a legal complaint made by Bonta against the oil and gas company. This complaint accused Exxon Mobil of misleading the public for decades regarding the recyclability of the plastics they produce.

The lawsuit, which was filed on Monday in the Eastern District of Texas, claims that Bonta, along with groups like the Sierra Club, San Francisco Baykeeper, Heal the Bay, and the Surfrider Foundation, conspired to harm Exxon’s reputation through misleading statements concerning the effectiveness of its plastic recycling capabilities.

In the legal documents, Exxon Mobil stated, “Together, Bonta and the US Proxies — the former for political gain and the latter pawns for the Foreign Interests — have engaged in a deliberate smear campaign against ExxonMobil, falsely claiming that ExxonMobil’s effective and innovative advanced recycling technology is a ‘false promise’ and ‘not based on truth.’”

The company is pursuing unspecified damages along with requests for retractions regarding the “defamatory statements” made by Bonta and the environmental groups involved.

A representative from the California Department of Justice characterized the lawsuit as “another attempt from ExxonMobil to deflect attention from its own unlawful deception” and expressed that Bonta is prepared to “vigorously litigate” this matter in court.

In Bonta’s lawsuit, which was filed in September, his office asserted that in the United States, less than 5% of plastic is recycled into new plastic products, despite many items being labeled as “recyclable.”

Consequently, the lawsuit claims that landfills and oceans are increasingly filled with plastic waste, leading to a global pollution crisis, while consumers continue to place plastic water bottles and other packaging into recycling bins, believing they will be processed properly.