What are books made of?
Books take paper, ink, sewing thread, adhesive, cardboard and cotton fabric directly. Trace them back and you pass 47 made things on the way to 19 raw materials.
How books are made See it on the map
What goes straight in
From the ground: 19 raw materials
- Water through cotton fabric
- Kaolin through paper
- Limestone through paper
- Timber through cardboard, wood pulp
- 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
- Raw cotton through cotton fabric, cotton yarn
- Rock salt through cardboard, wood pulp, caustic soda
- Coal through ink, titanium dioxide, coke
- Natural gas through ink, ethanol, ethylene
- Sugar beet through ink, ethanol, baker's yeast, molasses
Made along the way: 41 things
Metals 1
Chemicals and fuels 27
Carbon blackTitanium dioxidePigmentEthanolParaffin waxCaustic sodaQuicklimeOxygen gasHydrogen peroxideHexanePhenolFormaldehydeChlorineSulfuric acidEthylenePropyleneAmmoniaMethanolAcetoneNitric acidHydrogenBenzeneNaphthaPara-xyleneEthylene glycolTolueneCarbon dioxide