LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles County is taking on Pepsi and Coke for their roles in plastic pollution.

In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, the county alleged that PepsiCo and Coca-Cola companies misled the public about the recyclability of their plastic bottles and downplayed the negative environmental and health impacts of plastic disposal.

“Coke and Pepsi need to stop this scam and take responsibility for the plastic pollution problems your products cause,” L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said in a statement. “Los Angeles County will continue to address serious environmental impacts caused by companies that engage in deceptive and unfair business practices.”

Coca-Cola owns brands like Dasani, Fanta, Sprite, Vitamin Water, and Smartwater, while PepsiCo owns Gatorade, Aquafina, Mountain Dew, and more. According to global environmental group Break Free From Plastic, the two companies have been among the world’s top plastic polluters for five years in a row, with Coca-Cola ranking number one for six consecutive years.

According to Break Free from Plastic, PepsiCo produces approximately 2.5 million metric tons of plastic annually and Coca-Cola produces approximately 3.224 million metric tons of plastic annually.

A European Union consumer protection group and environmental organizations filed a legal complaint against Coca-Cola, Nestle and Danone last November, accusing them of misleading packaging when presenting it as 100% recycled or 100% recyclable.

The LA lawsuit said Coca-Cola and PepsiCo engaged in “disinformation campaigns” to get consumers to buy single-use plastics, believing them to be recyclable and less harmful to the environment.

He claimed that both companies promise to create a “circular economy” for their bottles, where plastic bottles can be recycled and reused infinitely, whereas in reality plastic bottles can only be recycled once.

The American Beverage Association, which includes PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, rejected the lawsuit’s accusations about plastic bottle recycling labels.

“The claim that our packaging is not and will not be recycled is simply untrue,” the group’s spokesman, William Dermody, said in a statement.

California has a 71 percent bottle recycling rate in 2023, one of the highest in the country, and its bottles are “designed to be recycled and remade and can contain up to 100 percent recycled plastic,” Dermody said .

The lawsuit states that an estimated 121,324 to 179,656 tons of plastic waste will seep into the land and ocean in California in 2022 alone, and that plastics make up seven of the 10 most litter items found on beaches.

A big part of the problem microplastics.

Plastics that leak into the environment eventually break down into plastic pieces of five millimeters or smaller. They can affect soil and plant growth, marine and fish life, and are nearly impossible to remove from the environment, the lawsuit states.

Some Australian researchers on behalf of the World Wildlife Fund calculated in 2019 that many people consume approximately 5 grams of plastic from common foods and drinks each week, and that microplastics are found in body tissues and organs. While overall research is still limited, concerns are growing that microplastics in the body could potentially be linked to disease. heart diseaseAlzheimer’s and dementia and other problems.

The lawsuit seeks a court order to stop the companies’ “unfair and deceptive business practices,” compensate consumers and impose fines of up to $2,500 per violation.

In February 2020, the environmental nonprofit Earth Island Institute filed a lawsuit in California seeking damages and ordering Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Nestle USA, Procter & Gamble and six other companies to clean up plastic waste for which they should be held accountable.

New York state also filed a lawsuit against PepsiCo last november For its role in creating plastic waste that flows into the Buffalo River, which empties into Lake Erie and provides drinking water to the city of Buffalo.