By Valerie Volcovici

WASHINGTON (Reuters] – A California environmental group announced Monday that it has sued two large retailers in California to prohibit them from selling thicker bags made of plastic. The bags, which are meant to be recyclable, cannot be recycled within the state.

The Last Beach Cleanup sued Gelson’s Markets and Stater Bros. Markets Friday at a superior state court. They claimed they had violated California’s recycling laws and contaminated the recycling system and polluted our environment.

Jan Dell, the founder of Last Beach Cleanup, stated that “The Last Beach Cleanup”‘s legal action seeks protection for legitimate recycling efforts and to save taxpayer money spent on cleanups. It also protects the environment from plastic pollution and waste caused by plastic bags and films.

According to the complaint, the bag symbols are misleading and encourage consumers to throw them away in curbside recycling programs which cannot process the material.

This lawsuit is being filed as consumer goods and plastic producer companies face legal, political, and investor pressures to end plastic waste and false claims about plastic recyclability.

California’s attorney General opened an investigation last month into the role of the fossil fuel- and petrochemical industry in the “cause and exacerbation of the global plastics polluting crisis” as well as their “aggressive campaign”, to inform the public about the possibility that recycling might solve the problem.

After suing Keurig Green Mountain for making false claims about recycling, a California resident settled with the coffee maker. Last Beach Cleanup, which was founded in 2009 by TerraCycle recyclers and eight companies that make consumer products like Coca-Cola (NYSE): reached a settlement. This forced them to remove false recycling labels.

These thicker, recycled plastic bags were created by what critics claim has been a loophole in California’s 2017 ban on single use shopping bags. This allows retailers to sell disposable plastic bags at a minimum price of 10 cents each if they can be recycled within California.

California Statewide Commission on Recycling Markets, Curbside Recycling and California Attorney General had requested in December that CalRecycle and CalRecycle crack down on illegal labeling it said was undermining efforts by the state to reduce plastic pollution.

Gelson’s Bros., and Slater Bros. weren’t immediately available to comment.