[etaioinshrdlu]

My understanding is that polyethylene, one of the most common plastics, has no double bonds, and the exact same ratio of carbon:hydrogen as shorter carbon chains. Simply breaking the polymer into short chains should literally give you oil. Why not?

[jcranmer]

Polyethylene is (CH2)n, where n is in the thousands or so, or 2.00 H per C. An octane (e.g., for gasoline) would be C8H18, or 2.25 H per C. Smaller-chain molecules are even higher H/C ratio.

So even polyethylene is short about .25 H per C.