Trash or treasure?

Now that I've unburdened myself with a rant against storage bins, let's take on trash. What doesn't go in the storage bin goes in the trash can. We live in a disposable society, and it is likely that we throw away more than we actually use.
Bath soap, for instance. It comes in a package - a box sometimes, or a plastic wrapper. The container gets thrown away and eventually the soap goes down the drain. It's an extreme example, but it is odd to me that we have to wrap soap in a container. It's soap, what are we afraid of ... that it's going to get dirty?

Tons of disposable packaging, most of which has little or no use other than providing business for the Waste Management Corporation. It seems to have gotten worse, since the mysterious Tylenol cyanide poisionings in 1982. Since then, products have an inordinate amount of packaging. Pill bottles come sealed in a box, and the bottle has a plastic ring with a paper seal inside and a child-proof cap that only children are strong enough to open.
We throw away huge amounts of junk every day. Trips to the trash can for everything from disposable diapers to batteries and the packaging for everything that we bring home.

I think that's why I appreciate homeless people. They don't throw anything away, and whatever they use, they carry around in a little cart. Strange, but efficient in their own way. No storage bin, no trash dumpsters - just their own stuff carted around with them.