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

Agree.

When I worked at my Charity shop when we had a surplus of books "The Book Man" would call every 2 weeks and take away the books for resorting,he would pay us x£s per kilo so we did not loose out completly on the donation some shops have to refuse due to storage space and health & safety regs they could be tripped over by volunteers if not stored away.
When we lived abroad every night the large collection bins next to apartments/villas had nearly new furniture left next to them and people spent the hour or two before collection time helping themselves to all sorts of household goodsthat people left when they moved.

We're lucky - living in a small city we have lots of charity shops, including an Oxfam shop which sells nothing but books and music. One annoying aspect is that we have many streets where driving is restricted so we can't deliver by car.

Lots of things here.....
We live in a consumer society, where everything is purchased using credit, but my parents were refugees who arrived with what they could carry. They turned into desperate hoarders and it is hard for me to live a middle road. Everything I do let go is then wanted/needed a few weeks later! I recycle a great deal, but have had a table turned down by a charity as we had used yacht varnish on the bare wood and were asked "what if a child chews it and is poisoned?" We managed to sell it eventually.

As for books..... I am active with Friends of the Library in Torbay. Our main fundraiser is 2nd hand books!! Kind people donate good quality no longer wanted books, and a steady stream of readers buy the paperbacks at £1 and hardbacks for £2. Astonishingly the sales realise around £50 each month. The proceeds sponsor free books for babies, the Lego club, the summer reading challenge and pays for speakers at the over 50's club, among other things.

I'm a new gran, babyboy just 6 months old. It makes me so happy to hand him the toys his auntie and his dad played with! I kept all my good stuff, like FisherPrice and Lego, and it's just as fun as it was 32 years ago! I also kept sheets and blankets, bibs, muslins, baby-bathtub etc. I only thrash what's really used up, other stuff I donate/pass on. It works both ways, a friend gave me a perfectly good but pre-walked stroller!

I hate seeing things thrown away. I had a go at my youngest the other day for taking something to the tip that could have been passed to someone else. Where I used to live I would often put things out in front and they disappeared really quickly...off to new homes. There are so many ways to get rid of things and the fashion is very much about up cycling now.

Charity shops can't always take everything, a friend had a beautiful 3 piece suite in superb condition that no-one would take because unfortunately she had removed the label that showed it passed fire regs. She had no alternative in the end but to take it to the tip.

All we can do is control our own behaviour.

We’d love to make others follow our exacting standards but we’re old enough to know that’ll end in tears.

People failing to study, failing to take responsible decisions and failing to stay married makes them poorer than those who do but we must grin and bear it.

We have a recycle ‘shop’ next to our local tip where things that previously would have gone in a skip are resold and proceeds support a charity which gives youngsters work experience. Its a fascinating place with constantly changing ‘stock’. My daughter has bought several chests of drawers and upcycled them. I bought a beautiful glass vase for £1.50. Prices are very reasonable. Never ceases to amaze me though what people chuck out.

I'm neither ashamed nor disgusted by my fellow man/womans' throwaway habits. I certainly wish it wasn't the case but then I wonder what I do that troubles them. I certainly have experienced difficulty in disposing of very serviceable items economically and effectively.

I love taking my things to Charity shops, and looking around them for books at the same time.
Why do so many people throw things out, or throw on the tip, when others may like them.

Coconut says ‘The younger generation are the worst’ but I remember a neighbour in the late 1960’s who before Christmas sort through her children’s toys and any they hadn’t played with in a while would go in the rubbish bin,needless to say my mum would rescue them and ask if she could take them to the local children’s home!! Also on the subject of discarded furniture..when my mum and Dad died,and we had to empty the house,the beautiful 3 piece leather suite (which had the required fire labels on) was refused by the local furniture charity shop because they said it was too big! We got rid of the fridge freezer and washing machine via freecycle but even the person picking them up gave us the run around for 3 weeks!!

I think it's a question of "easy come - easy go" these days. The days when people had to save up to buy things have long gone. Credit cards can encourage buying impulsively, and unnecessarily and some people are more vulnerable to this than others. Being a post war baby we had to make do with what we had and go without until we could afford to save for what was needed. I still think it did us good to have to wait for something and not get things immediately. Buying stuff for the sake of it seems to be a hobby with some people who then get tired of it and have to have something else. We have plenty of charity shops in our area so try and give any unused or unwanted things between them. Most of them take paperbacks which sell for around £1 - £1.50. Oxfams cost a bit more.

I quite agree with this shameless wasteful generation. I feel that the UK has become lazy and greedy as we have learnt to have everything immediately and cheap. We have become a nation of cheap imported rubbish which lasts for a few years only to be replaced with more cheap rubbish. As a consequence the countryside is being dug up to build giant warehouses to store this junk only to end in the ground. The roads are chocking under the strain of huge lorries and we have lost all our manufacturing. We have become a nation of museums where we wistfully see the label 'Made in Britain',
I say let's break this cycle of waste by bringing back the factories, make and buy our own. Bring back the jumble sales for recycling and most importantly bring back our pride.

Our local branch of EMMAUS was invaluable when we downsized. They turned up in a large van and took away a large sofa, boxes of books (sob!) and a piano!

DD and I love browsing their showroom. An upcycler's heaven.

I hate waste and Freecycle everything. We are the 'make do and mend' generation. Our parents were the war generation and it's rubbed off on us. We recently took a load of books to Oxfam and they sent an email to say they had sold them for just over £700:- result!

It is a shame that so much goes to waste.
I was brought up to make do and mend which I still do .
I have one very close friend who needs a new kitchen every two /three years I have stopped asking her why she needs a new kitchen it is her thing .
She is thousands of pounds in debt but still spends money .
My kitchen is so old now it’s vintage and people want it lol

In Germany they have a system like Perth. Once a month you could put things outside your house. Others would tour round looking to see what they might need and take things away. A wonderful idea!

My late aunt was a very thrifty lady. One day charity bags were left outside her neighbours house but they were ripped open by hooligans and strewn round the street. My aunt collected everything, washed it all in her washing machine, ironed it, and took it to a charity shop!

I have a friend who has supported a school in Gambia for many years. When my grandkiddies grow out of clothes I go through them and take out summery things, school blouses and shirts and underwear and send them to my friend to be shipped out to Gambia during the year. Other items go to charity shops or, for those items hardly worn, are sold on ebay or similar. I rarely buy new furniture as I prefer well made older items which I get through Facebook local pages/ebay/local second hand shops.

Haha i have a funny story too We left our old lawnmower out at our previus house for someone to take as hubby had upgraded ours where we previously lived I saw two guys come and carry it away The next day one of them rang the bell and asked if we had the extension cable for it! i said no we are using that for our bew one!

People put unwanted stuff on streets round here. I picked some Roman blinds last year, made 2 headboards for spare room covered in the fabric! I'm now using the lining for another Roman blind, which is great as the pockets for the dowling are already sewn!

So many people just don’t give a thought about recycling and the amount of waste is just absolutely staggering. The younger generation are worse, it’s such a throw away society and I so wish that they would think about the future. Our world is filling up with junk, as you say landfill sites prove this ... and living in the countryside, don’t even get me started on fly tippers, I would string them up !!

It’s a throw-away society...keep up! I work in a charity shop and I cringe at the amount of toys we receive, many of them still boxed! Most of us here are pre/post war children...there was little to throw away!

Like Maggie's GD, I have a mahogany dining table,6 chairs, two glass fronted cabinets and a lamp table which I would love to change for something modern.
Nobody wants it, so I will keep them for ever and leave my family to chop it up, I couldn't do it myself, it would be so awful.

To sarahcyn our charity shop sells items people have kindly donated for a very good cause. We still have all the usual utilites to pay so I do not think we are doing someone out of anything. Maybe you will need our charity one day & not be so snippy about charity shops??