What are plastic bags made of?
Plastic bags take polyethylene and ink directly. Trace them back and you pass 24 made things on the way to 15 raw materials.
How plastic bags are made See it on the map
What goes straight in
From the ground: 15 raw materials
- Water through ink
- Natural gas through polyethylene, ethylene
- Soybeans through ink, vegetable oil
- Rapeseed through ink, vegetable oil
- Clay through ink, vegetable oil
- Crude oil through ink, carbon black
- Air through ink, carbon black
- Titanium ore through ink, titanium dioxide
- Iron ore through ink, pigment
- Sulfur through ink, pigment
- Corn through ink, ethanol
- Sugarcane through ink, ethanol
- Rock salt through ink, titanium dioxide, chlorine
- Coal through ink, titanium dioxide, coke
- Sugar beet through ink, ethanol, baker's yeast, molasses
Made along the way: 22 things
Metals 1
Chemicals and fuels 17
EthyleneCarbon blackTitanium dioxidePigmentEthanolNaphthaHexanePhenolFormaldehydeChlorineOxygen gasSulfuric acidHydrogenBenzenePropyleneMethanolToluene
Plastics and fibers 1
Food 3
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.