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

It’s a generational thing. I have seen my children throw food out of the cupboards to make space for their new purchases and it hurts me to see them do that. It seems that today is a throwaway society, as things are now so cheap to buy, whereas our generation looked after items, some of them maybe bought on tick.
Me? I get most of my clothes from charity shops, as I can get something which would once have been too expensive for me to buy which is now at a price that I can afford. It makes sense and I’m not slow in coming forward about where I bought the item(s).

One of the charity shops locally sells all its hardbacks for 50p.
The manageress told me
"people say a hardback is too heavy to hold up in bed" !!

Jalima your post on Friday at 14.56 -
Perhaps that's because there aren't enough volunteers now to do this kind of work. Even an organisation called Emmaus in France, which used to collect used furniture for poor families weren't interested recently when I asked them to collect some good quality items. Not enough staff.

To fennel. Hmmm .... yes, I can believe that.

That could be the reason Fennel. DH works for a charity and remarked that there don't seem to be any younger people coming along to volunteer, they are all in their late 70s or even 80s and some are becoming too frail to carry on.

Since we're all on here we can clearly all use computers.

So it is worth contacting local charities, Ebay or its local equivalent Facebay or Freegan or any of the other places to advertise (collect only). Or a local auction house if you have a dining room and chairs. Some charities will take electrical items and get them PAT tested so they're kosher for sale.

Some councils are still running a service where decent stuff you don't need can be sold.

Clearly there are items that can't, like the dratted pre-1988 sofas or those without labels. And very tatty clothes - though presumably for those of us who can get there, there do tend to be rag-banks. Again, worth contacting the council to ask for the nearest or any service that will take them. Anything cotton or woollen I put in my compost heap, but realise not everyone has one.

As for "not enough volunteer staff" for charities - possibly because (a) most young couples are juggling two jobs and children just to afford rent or mortgage (b) more grandparents are doing more childcare (c) more people need to work until they're 67 because of the pension changes. Perhaps the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme and others should make it a qualification to do charity shop working or whatever.

Where I live, we have the usual recycling place to go to but there is also a large hut where people can take stuff that could be reused. Also the men on site stop any good stuff going in the skips and put things in the hut.
You’d be surprised how busy it gets!
People have a look round and pay a small amount to take stuff away and the money goes to help the homeless.
It’s a great idea.