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

This would add a lot of micro plastic to the environment. Asphalt is a wear item. Also, asphalt is very recyclable with the current formulation, so adding plastic to it would probably ruin that.