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

Another way of getting rid of stuff is on the local Facebook selling pages...most areas have them,,
Love Freegle too-- have got rid of lots of our ''rubbish'' on there that my hubby wanted to take to the tip... I always tell him if it hasnt gone in 2 days he can take it--he has never needed to go yet...

We have a friend who does car boot sales so have given some things to him rather than throw them out and also have donated furniture to the British Heart Foundation. However we too have a huge solid oak dining suite and not even charity shops can take it. I generally bag clothes up and take them to the local vets who give them to the Blue Cross. When my youngest son lived in London they used to put items outside the gate and it was always gone in an hour - unfortunately someone obviously fell foul one day. The night before my DIL had been to an award ceremony and was rather worse for wear - my son had gone to collect her in a cab and she threw up in a plastic container. Not thinking he just left it out the front meaning to dispose of it next morning - when he went to get it it was gone!!

I try to alter change re use clothes. Granddaughters dresses that have got too tight all get turned into skirts easily so can by used for another year. Trousers too , if too short get cut off for shorts. If hubby sees kids bikes at the tip he asked if he can have them. With two young granddaughters he tides them up, repairs if necessary and several have been used already by the children ( with a couple waiting for them to grow into. Bicycles are really expensive for my daughter (now a single parent) to purchase. My list could go on as I hate throwing things away.

We’re a “recycle if at all possible” family - we’ve all got things that used to belong to somebody else! And often have stuff for charity shops/collections. And definitely not too proud to shop on eBay!

When my daughter moved in with me lots of furniture was surplus to requirements so she put stuff outside our house with a note saying it was free to take. It all went very quickly! Once I’ve read books they go to a charity shop or passed on to friends. Clothes go to charity shops too so why do we still have clutter?

My parents furnished our bedrooms with 'orange boxes'. sturdy with with a shelf, and a wee curtain to look posh.

Those who shop regularly keep the economy afloat, easy come, easy go, their choice

The system in Germany (Sperrmüll - bulky waste) is not as you have described. The council designates a date (it used to be twice a year) when they will come round and collect goods too large to go in the dustbin. So everyone put out their discarded furniture and larger stuff on the one day.

The council workers then collect the stuff and take it to the tip. (Anyone is welcome to take their own stuff to the tip when they want, if they have transport.) Electrical and chemical rubbish (batteries, old paint) will not be collected, and collecting points are announced on a separate day.

However, these collecting days are being phased out, as people would roam the streets - sometimes in vans - scavenging and scattering the neatly stackd goods all over the street. The goods are for collecting and those who come along the evening before, and start rummaging around in it are considered vandals.

In our area, they have now stopped the communal "Sperrmüll" altogether. Everyone still has the right to two such collections a year, but they must arrange the pickups with the council themselves. Other areas may be doing the same. This way, you do not get unsavoury types roaming the streets at night, scattering mattresses and broken bicycles all over the place because there is no public warning about when collections are due.

When there are threads on this subject I am always very jealous of your charity shops. They are few and far between here, and I have several dozen dustbin liners of clothes and toys in my loft, waiting for an opportunity to give them away or sell. This would involve either getting up very early at the weekends for a car boot sale (also a dying institution) - and I am NOT an early riser! - or opening an e-bay-account and ridding myself of the stuff in dribs and drabs.

There are clothes collecting banks, but I fear that the clothes that are deposited there are put straight through a shredder.

I have advertised (free of charge) lots of stuff in the Freebies section of Gumtree. Amazing how cheeky and entitled some people can be. One woman replied asking me to phone a friend of hers and ask if they could arrange a van to pick up the lounge suite! It went to a lovely young couple just starting out, their delight was a joy.
I recently uplifted a bookcase which was advertised on Gumtree as free, for use in my garage. The lady was surprised when I gave her a box of chocolates.

Where I live in Worcestershire we have a very active local Freecycle group, and I believe they have groups all over the UK. You post a description of what you have to give away on their website, and then people contact you by email if they’re interested. You can also put on “wanted” ads I think once you've made a certain number of offers. I have given away quite a lot of surplus stuff, and gained a few good things too! (That, incidentally, is why I call myself Womble, “The things that the everyday folk leave behind.”)

I've always been of the "make do and mend" brigade but sadly the younger members of the family don't share that ethos. I get really bl**dy mad with my DIL who point blank refuses to have anything other than new for the GC - most of it doesn't even get used before its outgrown/no longer needed so I've stopped buying and now put money into savings each month instead. If her kids didn't get round to using whatever doesn't she realise that a lot of the "second hand" stuff she turns her nose up at also hasn't been used! I love a bargain and we wouldn't have been able to do so much with or for our family if we'd insisted on new.

I had an outdoor patio lunch with a neighbour/friend who had, the previous day, had a meeting in London and, driving through, had seen a patio umbrella shade in a skip and brought it home. He slotted it into the stand under the table and it was HUGE with a fringe and looked new.
When I saw it I ran into my house and grabbed the previous day's Daily Mail which showed 6 of the best summer canopies/parasol. His rescued 'sunshade was there, exactly as it appeared over our lunch table.
It was from Conran and the price, as eye-watering £4,995. I kid you not. Mahogany handle and motorised winching mechanism. All perfect and it was that summer's stock.

I love to recycle and donate goods when I can. But have come upon obstacles when it comes to furniture. Charities won't take suites unless they have the fire safe label on them. I had immaculate solid oak furniture that I wanted to donate as we were revamping for our retirement. Charity refused to take most of it as it was too big and heavy for their needs.

We are a very wasteful society these days and very materialistic. But many of us do try to recycle sensibly and I certainly do. I regularly take things to charity shops, and to our local tip where things are sorted and sold in the on-site shop if they are good enough.

Totally agree. Today's society seems to encourage a here today, gone tomorrow culture. Waste not, want not, seems to have gone out of fashion! Even some of the Charity Shops won't take your things now as they are brimming over.

Can I make a plea for people to think very carefully about what they take to charity shops.

I am sure no one on this forum is
guilty of this...but my husband works part time in a well known charity shop, and spends half his time shifting through rubbish that people have donated that is torn, dirty, broken and not fit for use. Charity shops are not meant to be a place for discarded rubbish that is better off taken to the tip.

Even worse are the bags left outside the shop at night. This is not good for the environment either as my husband spends time and petrol money driving to the tip with these ‘offerings’. This is not meant to be part of his job description.

So please...if something is not fit for purpose, please dispose of it considerately.

Every Tuesday our church hall has a swap shop for children's clothes. My DD had bags of baby clothes that GD had grown out of, some were new. She swapped them all for the next size up and it was all lovely and good quality. Lots of school uniforms there too. Great idea I think.

My new neighbour has a teenage grandson living with her. I passed him earlier this week chucking a plastic bottle right over the road over a hedge into the field opposite. Was tempted to say something but I held my tongue, because as I mentioned in an earlier post, I have had to call the HT and police over her behaviour and I don't want the hassle.

Am now looking for a reasonable priced retirement property. We keep being told that the young are being taught they need "to look after our world". don't see much evidence of it. I wouldn't have minded but he was going to the bus stop where there is a bin!

Our local tip used to keep aside anything decent that came in to sell. As others have said it's surprising what people dump, we have bought some nice thing from there, but now the council won't allow it any more for some reason, so it all goes to waste, very sad!

Charity shops not only waste a high percentage of what they are given but they have spoilt the 'jumble sale' sector where people could buy stuff to make do and mend withm and they sell bulk clothing to third word countries and decimate their own textile industries.

The high streets are full or them coasting along with low or no rates, free stock and unpaid staff.

I find some of the so called 'charity' work that goes on reprehensible.

I agree we waste too much but who is building houses with attics now???

We too use plastic food containers for seed boxes, but there's a limit to how many you actually need!! We live deep in the countryside so are able to incinerate a lot of waste without incurring any problems. We do worry very much about the amount of plastic going into the environment and try to do all we can to alleviate this. I have a friend who years ago almost completely furnished her flat from skips and charity/junk shops. These days I would think you could do a complete job!! It's shocking what goes to waste, sometimes things that are nearly new, food that is perfectly edible. I was brought up in the 1950's when waste of any kind was next door to a mortal sin, so for me, old habits die hard!!

Loved the kerbside thing in Perth and I have been told they used to do this in Germany too. I have seen it done here but just on a random basis, an organised day would be great. I know someone who was trying to get a charity to take their not very old sofas, they tried 3 and they were rejected by all - not because of safety hazards but because they were too ‘used’ and the charity’s clientele were particular about what they purchased! They gave up and sent them to the tip

When my mother died we took some of the furniture to use ourselves, the rest went to her local Sue Rider home where they renovate and sell it on. Many other charities do the same. We also had the problem with non-fireproof sofas, though they were so old that they would not have contained the dangerous fume producing synthetic foam.

We are hoping to move, so we're decluttering after 40 years here. A lot of time has been spent taking some things to the charity shops, ebaying items and putting others on freegle. I have used Ziffit and We Buy Books to sell a lot of books. As said here, there really is no need to just throw a lot of stuff out, although there is always some that needs to be taken to the dump

I agree there are far too many useful items consigned to the landfill. I have recently found a site called www.freecycle.org , it is nationwide but is split into regions/towns, so there is sure to be one near where you live, I have a friend who had to leave home and find lodgings quickly, she rented a small flat and moved in with nothing but personal belongings and very little money due to first/last months rent and security deposit. We went to www.freecycle.org and furnished and equipped the whole flat from there in a weekend and I mean everything, bed, 3 piece suite, table and chairs, all kitchen appliances, cooker, fridge freezer microwave oven, crockery, cutlery, bed linen etc etc. all of this would have gone to landfill and my friend would still be trying to equip her flat. I call this a win win situation and hope more people consider giving useful items away rather than throwing them away. All the donor has to do is give a description of the unwanted items and stipulate collection.

bluebelle
Mine was carpet . The vendor of a two bed bungalow DH and self once bought left his fitted bright purple lounge and bedroom carpet . We couldn't remove it quick enough and overnight, prior to taking where we could legally dispose of, left them next to our refuse bins. The carpets disappeared.By who ?we found out later when they came back and asked if we had more of the same.
No accounting for taste.