What are cotton swabs made of?
Cotton swabs take paper, polypropylene, raw cotton and adhesive directly. Trace them back and you pass 26 made things on the way to 11 raw materials.
How cotton swabs are made See it on the map
What goes straight in
From the ground: 11 raw materials
- Raw cotton goes straight in
- Water through adhesive
- Kaolin through paper
- Limestone through paper
- Timber through paper, wood pulp
- Crude oil through polypropylene, propylene
- Rock salt through paper, wood pulp, caustic soda
- Air through adhesive, acrylic, sulfuric acid
- Natural gas through adhesive, polyethylene, ethylene
- Sulfur through adhesive, acrylic, sulfuric acid
- Coal through adhesive, epoxy, acetone, benzene, toluene
Made along the way: 23 things
Chemicals and fuels 18
PropyleneParaffin waxCaustic sodaQuicklimeOxygen gasHydrogen peroxideNaphthaEthyleneAmmoniaSulfuric acidMethanolPhenolAcetoneChlorineNitric acidHydrogenBenzeneToluene
Plastics and fibers 4
Wood and paper 1
What it is packed in
On the line, but left out of everything above, because it holds the finished thing rather than goes into it.