What are postage stamps made of?
Postage stamps take paper, polyvinyl alcohol, adhesive and ink directly. Trace them back and you pass 38 made things on the way to 18 raw materials.
How postage stamps are made See it on the map
What goes straight in
From the ground: 18 raw materials
- Water through ink
- Kaolin through paper
- Limestone through paper
- Timber through paper, wood pulp
- Natural gas through polyvinyl alcohol, methanol
- Air through polyvinyl alcohol, oxygen gas
- Rock salt through polyvinyl alcohol, caustic soda
- Crude oil through adhesive, paraffin wax
- Soybeans through ink, vegetable oil
- Rapeseed through ink, vegetable oil
- Clay through ink, vegetable oil
- Titanium ore through ink, titanium dioxide
- Iron ore through ink, pigment
- Sulfur through ink, pigment
- Corn through ink, ethanol
- Sugarcane through ink, ethanol
- Coal through ink, titanium dioxide, coke
- Sugar beet through ink, ethanol, baker's yeast, molasses
Made along the way: 34 things
Metals 1
Chemicals and fuels 24
EthyleneOxygen gasMethanolCaustic sodaParaffin waxCarbon blackTitanium dioxidePigmentEthanolQuicklimeHydrogen peroxideNaphthaPropyleneAmmoniaSulfuric acidPhenolAcetoneChlorineNitric acidHydrogenHexaneFormaldehydeBenzeneToluene