"Earth Island Institute and Plastic Pollution Coalition Take On Big Plastic," 27 Feb 2020

Today, Earth Island Institute and Plastic Pollution Coalition, represented by Cotchett, Pitre, & McCarthy, filed the first major lawsuit against Crystal Geyser Water Company, The Clorox Company, The Coca-Cola Company, Pepsico, Inc., Nestlé USA, Inc., Mars, Incorporated, Danone North America, Mondelez International, Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Company, and The Procter & Gamble Company for polluting our waterways, coasts, and oceans with millions of tons of plastic packaging. The lawsuit was filed in California State Superior Court in the County of San Mateo alleging violations of the California Consumers Legal Remedies Act, public nuisance, breach of express warranty, defective product liability, negligence, and failure to warn of the harms caused by their plastic packaging...

“Corporate social responsibility is a key step in addressing our plastic pollution crisis,” said Julia Cohen, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Plastic Pollution Coalition. “Corporations need to urgently step up with both upstream and downstream solutions. This lawsuit is a necessary step toward a world free of plastic pollution and its toxic impacts on humans, animals, waterways, oceans, and the environment.”...

Mark Molumphy, a partner at Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, lead counsel for Earth Island, said “This is not just a disaster that future generations will have to deal with.  It is happening now and getting worse with each passing day. We are ingesting more and more plastic in the water we drink and the food we eat.”...

“The products that we are targeting in our lawsuit are contained in plastic packaging that is designed to be used for a short period of time, sometimes just a few minutes. And yet, this packaging pollutes our bodies from one generation to the next, and our planet for centuries,” said Earth Island’s General Counsel Sumona Majumdar.