Eli5 why we can’t melt plastic down and use it to add to asphalt

Question

I keep reading about how most plastic can’t be recycled and goes to the landfills instead.

With our technology, why can’t we melt it down, using some sort of scrubbers/filters to capture the emissions, and add it to asphalt or other industrial uses?

At the very least it seems like we could reuse that plastic for non food items that are typically used once and tossed.

In: 9

Answer 1

A lot of plastics are set in a way where they can no longer be melted down the way you expect. Basically the melted form and the solid form are different and you cannot easily go backwards.
I can’t think of a good analogy off the top of my head but imagine if:

You have oil and you have very easy way to change it into coal. You now have coal which you can’t just melt into oil as it will burn. You have to do some extra work. And this extra work is more expensive and complicated than changing oil into coal.