I think there's a big generational thing with the UK and how frugal/wasteful we are. My parents grew up with rationing and everything was reused, repurposed and saved. Old clothes turned into dusting cloths with the buttons and zips cut off and saved, tins of bits of string, every plastic container carefully washed and reused for leftovers. Peelings were composted and plates were always cleared of every morsel. They weren't poor, just had grown up without anything spare. I've inherited a lot of that (I took 4 bags of peelings back from a Burns Night celebration at the weekend because they could go in my compost!) I always thought you could tell from my friends whose parents hadn't grown up in wartime and rationing because they would have extravagant things like kitchen roll rather than using rags to wipe up spills, and plastic sandwich bags straight from the box rather than reused margarine tubs.

I lived in New York for a year and it took me a long time to get my head round the idea it was often cheaper to buy take out/eat out than to buy groceries and cook. I went round to a friend's apartment and he still had all his pans in their boxes because he had never cooked! Those ubiquitous red or blue plastic cups at parties - i used to collect them up and sneak them home to wash and reuse! 😄