Why do people waste so much or is it me being unreasonable

I m with you all the way Ethelbags I hate all this disgarded good stuff pass it round or change it to something else Recycle recycle recycle
I ve just found a way of using plastic bottles as seed growers so that’s my little recycling binge for the springtime

Totally agree. We see things at the tip which still have lots of life in them. Just been in the loft and turfed out a lot of stuff and will now sort it into charity shop good stuff and charity shop rags.

Why don't people use Freegle, then they wouldn't have to take it anywhere to dispose of?

Totally agree, maybe it’s all too easy these days. Another thing that makes me despair...

No, of course YANBU! Food, clothes, toys - far too much bought, quickly tired of and just thrown away. And shopping for more and more stuff seen almost as a virtue. It's very sad.

We could develop the habit of putting out unwanted items for other people to take. Some places have a monthly day to do this, leftovers collected by the local authority. In the U.K. It seems mostly random, someone put out 2 kitchen chairs in DS's road just when he needed one. In London I've seen a box of books and, one New Year's Eve, a brand new exercise bicycle. It had a note saying it was unwanted.
Freegle and other online boards are another way of passing items on but still so much goes to the tip.

My local library used to take old magazines which people could borrow for free, I used to think that was brilliant, for people who can't afford to buy them.

Quite often sofas etc cannot be given to charity as they don't meet current fire safety regulations.
We do seem to have become a throw away society now. I read recently of a lady still using her 50 year old New World cooker it had only had one part replaced in that time.

here we use free section of craigslist
called "curb alerts"
a few photos and a come and get it
have had all sorts of things hauled away

Our local authority will come and collect free if you are older - furniture etc.

Probably not enough of us , Ethelbags1, I have filled charity bags that have been left outside the door,stating that they will be collected on a certain date, but they never appear , so then have telephoned said charity who do eventually come & collect.Also we have a clothes bank nearby so we can take them there,bigger objects seem to more difficult to pass on. I think perhaps the effort can put some people off,also furniture has to have fire safety regulation labels on them for them to be accepted by a charity .

I agree ethel
However, when I took a pile of stuff to the charity shop the other day, the manager said 'I hope you haven't brought me any books, we can't get rid of them'!
I hadn't because I pass them on to family and friends.

Have you watched the programme where the presenter asks for objects which are going into the tip then upcycles them with the help of experts? Some go for silly prices afterwards. I think it's called Money for Nothing.

A charity took our three piece suite because it had a fire certificate, otherwise they couldn't take it. And my neighbour had furniture refused by the local Council furniture recyclers because it was melamine not real wood.

I've seen that programme, Jalima, and some of the transformations are amazing, but I must have peculiar taste. We sit here saying something will never sell and it goes for hundreds. Then we saw a lovely table upcycled from, if I remember rightly, an old mirror and nobody wanted it. Except us.

They spend quite a lot of money renovating something that the previous owner thought was just rubbish fit for the tip!
I got an idea for what to do with our kitchen chairs though

Most of the 'good' stuff taken to our tips are shipped off to 3rd world countries.

Jalima we have a charity book shop and our doctor's surgery also take books and patients buy them and give whatever they feel they can and all the money goes to charity. Round here books are very welcome.

I have a funny story I often put stuff outside the back gate and it’s usually gone in minutes One day I put some piping outside which disappeared very quickly later that day a knock at the door and an elderly man said I picked up some pipes from outside your gate this morning do you happen to have the brackets that go with them ???

I must say I was quite surprised Nonnie
There will be somewhere else, I'm sure, as quite a few places seem to sell books for charity, not just the charity shops.

Any upholstered furniture made since 1988 will meet the necessary standard.

We are a family of 'second roses'. We swap everything, clothes, furniture soft furnishings and when all else fails we sell or donate it to a worthy cause. Yes, we have on occasion dumped stuff that we could not get rid of any other way, but rarely.

As I write this I am wearing a skirt I bought from a charity shop and went out today in a coat I bought on ebay. Later this week my sister will be delivering some furniture that used to belong to my other sister, then my parents and then her, and which I will be taking up to DS when we go up for half term.

Living quite close to student territory I find that putting stuff outside the gate is usually successful - shelving units, cushions and coathangers.
Also surplus seedlings with a 'help yourself' notice!

What surprises me most, ethelt, is that you have enough clothes to be taking bagsful to charity shops "every week"! ? ?

I could take bagsful every week because I hang on to lots of stuff that I shouldn't!

Still shocked. Seriously. I'm thinking about the storage space for excess clothes. And wondering how long it would take for me to have no clothes if I even took one or two items to a charity shop every week. It wouldn't be all that long and I am not short of clothes.

In Perth oz they have a weekend every few weeks when you put out stuff you don't want onto the verge for the whole purpose of others helping themselves to it then the council clear what's left a few days later, works really well.

Nonnie I work in a charity shop and our unsold books have always gone to a “ book man” who collected every few weeks for onward use, now he no longer is coming and our books are boxed up for pulping, it breaks my heart