how do you feel the statement waste not want not applies in you life?

I think in America, we are very wasteful, we have disposable products for just about everything-cameras, towels, cups, silverware, plates, diapers-I could write forever about what winds up in our landfills. My family recycles everything possible, use cloth towels, cloth diapers, and I use cloth feminine pads. So we barely have to take out any trash.

YES YES YES!!! A thousand times yes! We, as a nation waste soooo much. We just throw things out without thinking whether they could be reused, recycled and/or repurposed! Today, hubby and I were getting our pool open and got our outdoor table and chairs out of the storage building. The table is on year 10 and is begining to rust. We took the glass out, hit the metal parts with some sandpaper and spraypainted it! Some of our plastic pool chairs have suffered sun damage and when you wipe them with your hand, white powder gets on you. We washed them, and hit them with some of the plastic spray paint. So many would have just thrown it all away and bought new! I refuse to throw away a ketchup or mustard bottle until it has stood on its lid and had EVERY drop used from it! My generation grew up way too easy.

I try not to waste anything. But with kids I know there are times I have. Anything we don't use I sell or give away. I don't throw something that can be reused by someone else in the trash. (examples: clothes, books, funiture, etc.) Any left overs I use in a meal within sevral days. Or it gets feed to the dogs and cat. I do think America is a very wasteful county. When they make products that you can just throw away after one use,thats wasteful..Like those containers you can buy lunch meat in. I wash them out and reuse them.

I try not to be wasteful, but in a way globalised industry wastes on our behalf (think about the amount of unnecessary non-biodegradable packaging they insist on using on everything). And to recycle in the UK, you need a car, as there aren't many recycle plants and the council doesn't give recycle bins and do recyclable waste collections. So to conserve the planet, people need to use petrol and pollute the planet to get their rubbish to the recycle plants, probably doing more harm to the environment in the process. When it comes to products and foodstuffs, I've always had a frugal outlook, as waste is not only silly, it's selfish. I just wish that our councils and government were interested in putting practical solutions in place to make it possible and convenient for people to recycle, rather than just taxing them when they throw away more waste because they can't recycle.

I am not at all wasteful (must be be my Scots background). As a nation we are disgustingly wasteful throwing away money on unimportant or useless programs and people then not having enough for the major needs of our country.

I try not to waste much of anything. I totally agree, many of our problems come from waste. We are great at wasting things. Our waste could go to great causes in other countries. We are very spoiled in that respect. We think there is a never ending supply of everything. I don't see too much wrong with buying and using a lot of things, but buying them and wasting them is another story.

Being conservative and not wasteful sounds totaly boring, there is nothing more fun than getting totaly wasted.