What are tampons made of?
Tampons take rayon, raw cotton, sewing thread, plastic and cardboard directly. Trace them back and you pass 35 made things on the way to 13 raw materials.
How tampons are made See it on the map
What goes straight in
From the ground: 13 raw materials
- Raw cotton goes straight in
- Water through cardboard
- Natural gas through plastic
- Timber through cardboard, wood pulp
- Rock salt through rayon, caustic soda
- Sulfur through rayon, sulfuric acid
- Air through rayon, sulfuric acid
- Crude oil through plastic, propylene
- Limestone through cardboard, wood pulp, quicklime
- Corn through sewing thread, polyester, PET plastic, ethylene glycol, carbon dioxide
- Coal through cardboard, adhesive, epoxy, acetone, benzene, toluene
- Sugarcane through sewing thread, polyester, PET plastic, ethylene glycol, carbon dioxide, baker's yeast, molasses
- Sugar beet through sewing thread, polyester, PET plastic, ethylene glycol, carbon dioxide, baker's yeast, molasses
Made along the way: 31 things
Chemicals and fuels 22
Caustic sodaSulfuric acidNaphthaEthylenePropyleneAdhesiveQuicklimeOxygen gasHydrogen peroxideHydrogenParaffin waxPara-xyleneEthylene glycolAmmoniaMethanolPhenolAcetoneChlorineNitric acidCarbon dioxideBenzeneToluene
Plastics and fibers 6
Wood and paper 1
Food 2
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.