Plastic wire baskets lasted a generation. Calendars were used to cover the books. Groceries were packed in conical-shaped newspaper & secured with jute twine. Metal dabbas were used in the kitchen, & the rest of the packing material, including coconut-shell, went into heating water in the bathroom as a woodfire. The resulting ash was used to wash vessels with the help of the coconut husk.
Powders, pastes, & masalas were made at home, & cold-pressed oil came from the local ginner in a steel container. Filter coffee powder came in a brown paper cover secured with brown-paper gum tape. Not only vegetables, fruits, flowers, rocksalt, flattened/puffed rice, & kerosine came to our doorstep, but also tamarind, red chillies, and lemon/mango for pickles, in season, once a year, for an entire year.
Slippers, umbrellas, copper vessels, open-well, furniture & cotton mattresses got repaired at our doorstep.
Cooking was creative. Vegetable seeds & peel were also used to make different dishes. With the absence of a fridge, leftover food (if at all), rice starch water, vegetable/fruit peel, sour curds, & a few kitchen wastes went into a bucket full of water locally called ಕಲಗಚ್ಚು (Kalagachu). This nutritious concoction was relished daily by the cattle on the road, & in turn, they would provide cow dung, which was used as manure or to smear the sit-out.
I had one pair of slippers. Clothes were bought from a known shop, without bargaining, for the entire family twice a year. Old clothes were mended & handed down or put to use creatively.
Nothing went to waste.
And then, in the 90s, we as a country decided to liberalize ourselves to ape the developed nations & ended up with garbage. What a shame.
