It's a question of supply and demand. If your final goal is to burn less oil, then you want to 1) reduce the supply and 2) reduce the demand. Buying Tesla reduc

It's a question of supply and demand. If your final goal is to burn less oil, then you want to 1) reduce the supply and 2) reduce the demand. Buying Tesla reduces demand: good. Turning plastic to oil increases supply: bad. Your plastic bag example is interesting because I think it's accurate - having plastic compete with combustion as a use for crude oil is good from an emissions standpoint, because when the wells run dry, less of it will have been burned. (Plastic bags are indeed a bit of a silly example because there's so little plastic in them - we ban them because they cause disproportionate environmental harm)