What are playing cards made of?
Playing cards take paper, adhesive and ink directly. Trace them back and you pass 37 made things on the way to 18 raw materials.
How playing cards 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
- Crude oil through adhesive, paraffin wax
- Soybeans through ink, vegetable oil
- Rapeseed through ink, vegetable oil
- Clay through ink, vegetable oil
- 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 adhesive, polyurethane, chlorine
- Natural gas through adhesive, polyethylene, ethylene
- 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
Paraffin waxCarbon blackTitanium dioxidePigmentEthanolCaustic sodaQuicklimeOxygen gasHydrogen peroxideEthylenePropyleneAmmoniaSulfuric acidMethanolPhenolAcetoneChlorineNitric acidHydrogenHexaneFormaldehydeNaphthaBenzeneToluene
Plastics and fibers 5
Wood and paper 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.