What happened: New York courts dismissed a plastic pollution lawsuit against PepsiCo, while Ford County, Kansas, filed one against petrochemical companies over misleading recycling claims.

Tell me more: New York’s ruling stresses that plastic waste issues require legislative action, not judicial. 

• Ford County’s lawsuit claims petrochemical companies misled the public about plastic recycling.
• Both lawsuits asserted a public nuisance claim.

Worth noting: The New York ruling sets a precedent that may limit future public nuisance lawsuits, while Ford County’s case highlights the fact that any city or county having a pro-lawsuit government can pursue a public nuisance action.

• Ford County’s action is the first county-level lawsuit of its kind, following California’s similar state-level action.

TLR Thoughts: As we have said many times before, public nuisance lawsuits are an attempt to circumvent state legislatures and regulate societal conduct through litigation. New York courts got it right, while the Ford County lawsuit demonstrates the breadth of the problem. Texas lawmakers have an opportunity to prevent similar nuisance claims from gaining traction in the state, ensuring that public policy is set by the legislature, not by county governments through lawyer-driven lawsuits.

Read the full New York article here.

Read the full Kansas article here.